Consumer Electronics' Role October 14, 2009 Christine Richards Editor-In-Chief Intelligent Utility Magazine When the utility industry talks about home energy management, the focus is often on managing home appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators. But what about all of the other stuff we plug in -- or just never unplug -- each day? The "plug load," which consists of many consumer electronics (CEs), just doesn't get enough air time today in smart grid discussions. Yet CEs -- such as cellular phones and computers, televisions -- will be a $165 billion industry in the United States in 2009, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. And these electronic devices consume not only our dollars, but our energy as well. A 2008 study by the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research Program found that such devices account for 15 to 19 percent of California residential energy use and, "if household electronic energy use were assumed to be the same in the rest of the United States as in California, these devices would consume 9 to 12 percent of the electricity used in the average U.S. home." With all the smart grid buzz, the utility industry is examining the intelligent controls for home energy management, but sometimes it is just as important to think about the devices themselves. Before talking about the more exotic energy management capabilities of CEs, let's take a look at managing the energy consumption inside "the box" and what CE manufacturers and utilities are doing in this space. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has been working on energy efficiency programs for more than 30 years. Three years ago, the company decided to focus specifically on the high tech vertical market, which makes significant use of data centers and more general IT infrastructure. PG&E's program focuses on education and training, assistance with developing energy efficiency projects and funding energy efficiency initiatives. "We do pay customers to improve their energy efficiency practices and technologies," said Mark Bramfitt, principal program manager, high tech market, customer energy efficiency at PG&E. "It is more cost-effective for me to help customers increase energy efficiency than for PG&E to go secure more generation resources." A key challenge is how to encourage customers to purchase energy-efficient computers. "I would like customers to buy Energy Star-rated computers, but the problem is that it is not worth giving five to 10 dollars to individuals from a project management standpoint," Bramfitt said. "So, what we do is write checks to companies like Dell and HP that tell me how many Energy Star computers they sell in our area." This encourages the computer providers to prominently display and promote their more energy-efficient models. Growth Potential Even with a focus on energy efficiency, Bramfitt is seeing more of an overlap between energy efficiency inside the devices and more intelligent control capabilities. "I get asked more and more questions about demand response and smart grid," Bramfitt said. "Cisco wants to talk about smart grid. HP wants to talk about data center management and demand response." Aside from managing consumption inside the box, there are opportunities to manage it outside the box as well. "How do you conserve energy? The consumer electronics industry addresses that with Energy Star in some way," said Robin Ford, vice president of business development with Global Cache. "We need to take it a step further, take consumer electronics and use them to connect and monitor all of our appliances and devices, and give feedback to consumers." John Thomas, senior marketing strategist with Intel Corporation's Eco Technology Group, agrees. "We look at improving the efficiencies of computers, which make up about 2 percent of total energy consumption, and then we need to look at how we can use that 2 percent to make the other 98 percent more efficient, too." CEs could provide a viable method for managing energy because people use these items every day. Imagine having one smart phone for managing e-mail, one for browsing the Internet and so on. That would require a lot of holsters. "From a consumer perspective, our view is that technology and consumer electronics can play a big role in becoming more energy aware and managing energy more wisely," Thomas said. "Consumers want choices and want to control energy across multiple screens -- from computers to televisions to mobile devices." Ambitious electricity consumers could and already do manage their home energy without a utility company's help, but for most consumers, utility involvement will be critical. Whether working on CEs as energy consumers or as managers, a closer connection between the CE industry and utilities will likely offer benefits -- from more interoperable devices to the broader distribution of information about energy consumption. Yet there are certainly challenges to overcome. One, for example, is the language barrier. Another, meanwhile, is that each industry relates differently to its customers. "We see this connection in the early stages of forming, but clearly there is huge economic value in getting it right," says Intel's Thomas. "For the market to really flourish and grow, we need open standards, so consumers can go purchase a device from Home Depot and Best Buy and they will be able to work together in a plug and play fashion. If utilities can stop at the curb and enable an open market, then consumers can go out and buy their own products and go with a service provider offering." That is where the electronics and utilities converge and agree that growth opportunities will abound. Subscribe to Intelligent Utility magazine today. Intelligent Utility magazine is the new, thought-leading publication on how to successfully deliver information-enabled energy. This article originally appeared in the September/October 2009 issue