For years, energy conservation has been a state priority more in theory than in practice. The Murphy administration has set new goals, but there’s disagreement about how to achieve them
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
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| Steve Gabel |
More than a decade ago, New Jersey ranked among the nation’s ten best states in promoting energy-saving actions for its residents and businesses.
Not anymore. A recent ranking by the respected American Council for Energy Efficiency Economy put New Jersey in the middle of the pack at 23rd — despite energy conservation repeatedly being cited as a top priority in the state’s energy master plans as long ago as 1978, according to Steven Gabel, president of Gabel Associates, an energy consulting firm.
Now, a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy this spring establishes new goals to cut energy use and, for the first time, mandates New Jersey’s gas and electric utilities to curb customer consumption.
For clean-energy advocates, utilities, and others who participated in an NJ Spotlight roundtable in Newark this past Friday on energy efficiency, it is well past the time to get the show on the road.
“Customers want to use less energy because they want to save money,’’ said David Daly, president and COO of Public Service Electric & Gas, the state’s largest utility. “It’s their number one issue for them.’’
Mixed results
It may be a top priority of both customers and policymakers, but the results have been mixed, at least by some advocates’ perspective.
Mary Barber
In the state’s fiscal year 2018, the New Jersey Office of Clean Energy projected 0.36 percent in annual energy savings, according to Mary Barber, New Jersey clean-energy director for the Environmental Defense Fund. The new state law requires electric utilities to cut consumption by 2 percent and gas companies to cut it by 0.75 percent. “Based on the results, we need change,’’ said Barber.
“We’ve really scratched the surface in New Jersey despite very great efforts,’’ agreed Adam Procell, president and chief executive officer of Lime Energy, a Newark company involved in energy conservation.
During a wide-ranging discussion, participants were more optimistic the new law could push the state into a leadership role in energy conservation, with some debate over the role of the state’s utilities and how much they should be rewarded.
Brand: ‘The utilities are fine’
Several speakers argued utilities — with well-established relationships with customers — ought to be the focus on bringing energy-efficiency to residents and businesses.
Stefanie Brand
But Stefanie Brand, director of the Division of Rate Counsel, disputed the prospect of allowing utilities to recover lost revenue from sales by incenting customers to use less energy — a provision called “decoupling’’ in energy jargon that’s used in more than half of the other states in the country.
“The entire energy efficiency discussion cannot be about how are we going to pay utilities,’’ Brand said. “This is crazy. This is why nothing has happened. I see their books. The utilities are fine.’’
Others disagreed on whether the state can move forward with aggressive energy-efficiency goals without decoupling.
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