The Public Utility Commission this week approved standards to track and verify demand management, energy efficiency, and load management programs and technologies under the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act that took effect in February.

The requirements include:

· A catalog approach that will establish the number of credits available for standard energy savings measures that are available to a large number of customers through retail consumer products such as energy efficient appliances, light bulbs and heating and air-conditioning equipment.

· Custom or metered measures that require actual metered usage or self-generation. Custom measures include time-of-use pricing programs that determine savings by comparing actual metered usage to typical load profiles of similar customers. Metered measures include distributed generation where the value of generator output, for example, can be directly measured.

Demand side management deals with managing customer consumption of electricity or the demand for electricity through energy efficiency technologies, load management, or demand response technologies or industrial byproduct technologies. Demand side response programs benefit customers by helping them to reduce their electric use during high demand periods, generally during summer heat waves.

Generally, compliance will be measured in terms of the Alternative Energy Credit, which represents one megawatt hour of alternative energy generation. A credit may also be earned for each megawatt hour of electricity conservation resulting from adherence to demand side management and energy efficiency standards approved by the PUC.

The PUC Bureau of Conservation, Economics and Energy Planning will oversee the implementation of these standards approved as part of its market-monitoring responsibilities.

“The Commission’s action represents another important step in establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for the successful implementation of the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, signed into law by Gov. Rendell,” said Chairman Wendell F. Holland. “I commend our Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Working Group and the Department of Environmental Protection for being such strong partners in the implementation of a law that ultimately will bring new choices and new energy sources to Pennsylvania consumers.”

The Act requires 18 percent of electricity sold in Pennsylvania by 2020 to be from renewable and environment-friendly sources.

For more details visit the PUC Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards webpage.

9/30/2005