Energy Efficiency Acronyms & Lingo
As an electrical distributor (or anyone else accessing this site, sponsored by NAED), you’re familiar – of course – with energy efficiency. But a whole new set of abbreviations, concepts, and references have crept into the field lately. Here’s a quick update and where to find out more.
CAP & TRADE – this is about power companies and emissions, of course (see Cap & Trade 101). But the Alliance to Save Energy is promoting “energy efficiency as the primary cost-containment tool in cap & trade.”
EERE – this is the Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy operation of the U.S. Department of Energy. The office has gotten more money from the Obama Administration, already (and there are suggestions to pour still more funds into it for FY10). On what does EERE spend this money? See the FY09 “Budget in Brief” document (66-page PDF). Yes, 66 pages is what passes for “brief” in Washington, D.C., these days.
EERS – you might have heard about a renewables portfolio standards (RPS). The ACEEE is now pushing for an EERS – Energy Efficiency Resource Standard. According to the group: “Under the proposed federal EERS, retail electricity distributors would be required to attain 15% electricity savings while natural gas distributors would need to meet an 10% savings target by 2020.”
Note: An “electricity distributor” is a company that sells electrical power, not electrical products!
ENERGY SAVERS BLOG – it’s from the U.S. government.
PUE – we’re not sure how to pronounce it, but it stands for Power Usage Effectiveness. It’s a recently created metric for data centers, created by The Green Grid (more here).
Don’t think for a moment that it’s esoteric; Consulting-Specifying Engineer has had articles on PUE back in December and a March issue roundtable that led off with a question on PUE.
RDEE – that stands for (a new one on us!) the Rapid Deployment Energy Efficiency tool kit which, according to EPA, “provides detailed program design and implementation guides for 10 broadly applicable energy efficiency programs.”
TAX CREDITS – if the concept of tax credits for homeowners making energy-efficient improvements to their structures is unusual to you, don’t worry – it just happened. And it scheduled to go away by 12/31/10. So see the ENERGY STAR page, with a table/summary of credits, and get busy selling (or doing something to your own house).
Is there “electrical stuff” in there? Nothing on lighting, but there are credits for solar PV systems, small wind, and residential fuel cells and microturbine systems.