By Joaquim P. Menezes
Green is in. Or is it?
Among Canadian enterprises – I think the answer would be “yes – absolutely.”
There's undoubtedly a new awareness of the need for "environment-friendly technologies" among Canadian businesses, as compared to (say) a year ago.
Many more Canadian companies today are talking green, and many are even willing to walk the talk by investing in energy-saving technologies, for instance.
Recent studies suggest it’s pragmatism (the desire to save costs and boost long-term revenues), rather than altruism, that’s driving most corporate green IT initiatives.
Is “green” consciousness permeating the consumer space as well? If so, what’s fuelling the interest? Are significant cost savings available to consumers who participate in "green" projects -- such as initiatives to lower power consumption, for instance?
The jury is still out on these questions. Consider the case of the “smart meter” pilot project introduced last summer by The Ontario Energy Board.
The assumption was consumers would respond favourably to an opportunity to cut their energy bills by shifting some usage to off-peak hours.
The final report of the Board on the project – which ran from August 1, 2006 until February 28, 2007 – was released on Friday.
Participants in the pilot apparently did achieve overall reduction in electricity consumption, but the overall cost savings don’t seem to be significant.
Around 90 per cent of participants in the pilot paid lower energy bills by being mindful of their time of use, while almost 80 per cent said they would recommend time-of-use (TOU) pricing to friends. Using smart meters with some form of TOU prices apparently led to electricity conservation, in most cases.
According to the report, study participants reduced overall electricity consumption an average of six per cent compared to a similar-sized group of Hydro Ottawa customers not paying TOU prices.
The actual dollar savings, however, were modest. Over the course of the entire pilot period, on average, participants shifted consumption and paid three per cent or $1.44 less on monthly bills with the TOU pilot prices than they would have paid on the regular electricity prices charged by their utility. When that was combined with the impact of reducing their overall consumption, there was a total average monthly saving of over $4.
Hmmm. Hardly, eye popping. Going by these numbers, it doesn’t seem cost savings will be a big driver for smart meters. How then are we to get people pumped up about this initiative?
In my view, projects such as these will only take off when they strongly appeal to people’s social consciousness (the Al Gore effect if you will).
That’s going to require an investment of time and money – by various government jurisdictions – and by “interest” groups.
Re. the smart meters project, one piece of good news is that the majority of participants are keen to act as evangelists for this initiative – whose benefits they have experienced.