In this field, there is quite a bit of buzz about "The Smart Grid" and clean technology. Both terms are ill-defined. No matter what the definition, there is no question that concern about climate change, energy prices, and even responses to the Gulf Oil Spill seem to have engendered greater concern about energy consumption and behavior. One company that has gotten a lot of attention for its focus on behavior is a company called OPower. (See Greentech Media August 26, 2010 "OPower Shifts Regions But Gets Similar Results in Energy Efficiency"). The progress that OPower has made is impressive. They have gotten 1.5-3% efficiency improvements by providing information to residential households-- information that has created a competition among households. OPower has taken advantage of that all-American drive to compete-- but in this case the competition is to reduce energy consumption (and save money).
According to the US Dept of Energy and the Energy Information Agency (EIA), residential households and commercial buildings consume a comparable amount of primary and delivered energy. So who is focusing on creating motivations for commercial buildings to consume less electricity? Why can't commercial clients compare their consumption and compete to be the most efficient commercial building owner? Commercial buildings can't even view their usage or cost in anything close to real time. The information barriers to improving efficiency in the buildings sector are far greater for large users (commercial buildings) than for smaller, dispersed residential users. Does that make any sense? Perhaps, perhaps not... tomorrow we move to a discussion of why anyone should care about building energy consumption in the commercial sector.
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