Heads They Win, Tails You Lose
Yesterday, I got a call from a friend who said he heard a news story on the local radio station about Idaho Power making changes to their energy "savings" programs. The Idaho Public Utilities Commission initiated a comment period for customer input on the changes. I researched it and it appears that this move by the co-conspirators Idaho Power, IPUC and the "earth liberation" radical environmentalists: Idaho Conservation League and the Snake River Alliance is a positioning step for what will ultimately be a mandatory program of utility company management of your electric usage. They would deny that of course, but that's the way they operate - like snakes in the grass. They know nothing - up until the moment they spring it on you.
The article mentioned above said that Idaho Power applied to suspend the load management programs but that the "bedfellows" mentioned above came to an agreement to simply change the terms of the program - at least until 2015 at which time, I predict, they will make them mandatory for demand-side management of residential electricity usage with the terms mentioned in the article which are that Idaho Power will have the authority to cycle your AC on and off without notice, without permission and without compensation.
The original motion to suspend the program can be found in Case IPC-E-12-29, Motion to Approve and the settlement agreement which continues the program on a temporarily limited basis can be found in Case IPC-E-13-14, Motion beginning at page 82 for the marked up schedule.
Background
Apparently, every two years, Idaho Power is required to prepare and publish an Integrated Resources Plan. This is a report that details their projections and plans for use of resources to provide power for their customers in the coming years. In this year's report, they projected that there would be no shortages of electric power to supply the needs of their customers until 2016.
Case IPC-E-13-15 - Application
"As required...the Company prepares and files a biennial IRP with both the IPUC and the OPUC setting forth how Idaho Power intends to serve the electric requirements of its customers. Idaho Power's 2013 IRP addresses available supply-side and demand-side resource options, planning period load forecasts, potential resource portfolios, a risk analysis, and an action plan that details the steps the Company plans to take to implement the 2013 lRP.
The complete 2013 IRP consists of four separate documents: (1) the 2013 lntegrated Resource Plan; (2) Appendix A - Sales and Load Forecast; (3) Appendix B - Demand-Side Management 2012 Annual Report; and (4) Appendix C - Technical Appendix."
The following is an excerpt from Appendix B - Demand-Side Management 2013 Annual Report - emphasis added:
Total expenditures from all funding sources on demand-side management (DSM)-related activities increased about 7 percent, from almost $46.3 million in 2011 to $49.3 million in 2012. This funding now comes from several sources outside the Idaho and Oregon Energy Efficiency Riders. Idaho incentives from the company’s demand response programs are recovered through the annual power cost adjustment (PCA), and Idaho incentives for its industrial energy efficiency program, Custom Efficiency, are capitalized similar to a supply-side resource.
Although on target for savings achieved for the IRP, Idaho Power’s annual energy savings from its energy efficiency activities slightly decreased in 2012. Reduced energy savings in 2012 were caused partially by Idaho Power’s and the region’s increased evaluation, measurement, and verification (EM&V) activities, which generally reduce savings estimates. The amount of energy saved was enough to power over 13,000 average homes served by Idaho Power. From Idaho Power’s energy efficiency programs alone (excluding Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance [NEEA] savings), the savings decreased 7 percent, from 163,315 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2011 to 152,486 MWh in 2012. Annual energy savings for 2011, including the revised NEEA savings, were 183,862 MWh. In 2012, these savings decreased slightly to 170,228 MWh.
In 2012, Idaho Power celebrated 10 years of energy efficiency and demand response activity funded under the Idaho Energy Efficiency Rider (Idaho Rider). In those 10 years, the company realized a cumulative annual savings of over 1 million MWh savings. This is enough energy to power a city of 85,000 average residences. The demand-reduction capacity for Idaho Power’s demand response programs in 2012 was over 438 megawatts (MW). This represents over 13 percent of Idaho Power’s new record system peak of 3,245 MW set in 2012.
Notice that the costs are in real dollars that come out of your pocket - and the "savings" are in megawatt-hours. It's not clear how the alleged savings are calculated. The numbers they are reporting are for what didn't happen. What was their basis? Peak capacity that wasn't used? Fabricated savings from the used refrigerators not sold that they took off the market through incentives to appliance dealers? Cost incentivized customer reductions due to increases in electric rates at a time of economic decline? In other words, the savings could be and probably are pure fiction. More importantly than that however, is the fact that the electric utility companies are building a system that will be used for fascist management of your life (i.e. the radical Agenda 21 program of control).
These are two links for Idaho but there are search boxes to use to find your state:
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
Notice on this webpage, "Energy Efficiency as a Resource". What that is - is what I was describing above concerning the fictional savings. Energy Efficiency as a Resource attempts to declare an intangible as an asset - and in fact, it does become a dark side asset as they charge you more for the electricity you do use - to cover the cost of what you don't use and what they waste on demand-side management programs. It's fraudulent accounting designed to deceive.
EPA - State and Local Climate and Energy Program - Idaho
The Public Utilities Commissions are captured agencies - captured by the radical environmental and terrorist "earth liberation" groups. They are using the utility regulatory powers of the government to reach through the utility companies like Idaho Power to get to you - to regulate and control you. That was never the intent of the regulatory power of the Utilities Commissions. In fact, it is a perversion of the regulatory authority from the original intent. The original intent was to protect electric consumers (residential and business) from extortive pricing and selective provision of service.
The smart meters and demand-side management programs are mechanism of control imposed through the regulatory powers of the Public Utilities Commissions. It doesn't matter how much of your money they waste on frivolous programs and needless overhead costs to Idaho Power, it's heads they win and tails you lose. It doesn't make any difference to Idaho Power. They don't absorb any of the costs. They simply pass them through to you, the electric consumer. For every kilowatt hour of electric savings (i.e. electricity not sold), your rates for what you do use will increase anyway to make up for the loss of revenue to the electric utility company and to pay for the ever expanding demand-side management programs. This is a system of regulatory job creation for environmental terrorists and "rate-skimming" by parasites on the electric utility business.
I don't want to dwell on this too much today but I will continue to work on it because there is a lot more to report about this issue that has not been brought out yet so stay tuned. More to come.
Vicky Davis
October 16, 2013