TVA issued a press release on the results of its 2012 fiscal year energy efficiency numbers at the beginning of the month, and we are happy to see that TVA and its distributors exceeded their energy efficiency goals. TVA reported that its energy efficiency and demand response programs reduced electricity useage by 560 GWh in 2012!
While TVA had some innovative efficiency programs in 2012, including an arrangement with Clayton Homes to ensure that the majority of manufactured homes arriving to the Valley are Energy Star certified, the savings still only amount to about 0.33% savings as a percentage of sales.
While this may exceed TVA’s goal, there is still room for plenty of improvement, as I blogged about last week. This savings level puts TVA in the middle of the pack of Southeastern utilities, which does not meet the other goal they set for themselves of being the leader of increased energy efficiency in the Southeast. As we have discussed, we think that it is entirely reasonable for TVA and its distributors to save 1% of their annual sales with energy efficiency on an annual basis. For fiscal year 2012, this would have been about 1700 GWh, or three times more efficiency than what TVA actually achieved.
There are many opportunities for TVA and its distributors to get to 1% energy efficiency – additional programs for residential and commercial customers are good starting points. We have heard talk of TVA introducing a small business program, appliance recycling and incentives for efficient air conditioners, but have not seen any action towards rolling out those programs, which is disappointing as TVA’s peers Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Georgia Power do offer these programs.
Despite our concerns about TVA’s new CEO Bill Johnson and his history with efficiency at Progress Energy, we hope to see TVA and its distributors will strive to reach its goal to be the leader on increased energy efficiency in the Southeast.