Experts say conservation can increase energy grid

Apr 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bryan McKenzie The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.

Turning off the lights, dialing down the thermostat, cutting back the air conditioner and wearing sweaters or bathing suits indoors won't cut energy use enough to keep the power grid humming, according to energy officials and activists.

Representatives of Virginia Dominion Power, ExxonMobil and Charlottesville's Local Energy Assistance Program told members of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that finding ways to efficiently use energy can actually increase the amount of energy available.

All three agreed that energy's end-users -- those who fill gas tanks, turn on lights or produce products -- can actually increase the supply of energy by being efficient in the energy they use.

"When we want to use energy, we don't use it for energy's sake, we need it for the services it provides us," said Cynthia Adams, of LEAP. "Every unit of energy saved in home use through more efficient use saves 10 units in production and distribution. That makes more units available."

Mike Roman, of ExxonMobil, agreed.

"There is a direct link between energy growth and energy demand, and efficiency is extremely important to get us to a supply/demand balance," he said. "We're going to continue to have to find safe, secure and reliable ways to develop conventional resources, such as oil and natural gas, and bring alternative sources along as well."

The officials made their comments at the chamber's "Power Lunch" held at the Glenmore Country Club. The three-person panel, moderated by Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, presented the representatives' views on the future of power.

All agreed that alternative methods such as wind, solar and wave energy are worth developing. They also agreed that there are significant issues in producing enough energy from those methods to do more than augment conventional power sources such as oil and natural gas.

Mark Webb, of Dominion Virginia Power, said the company has developed, and will soon put on line, several hybrid fuel power plants that run on a combination of fuels such as biomass and natural gas as opposed to coal.

The company also is investigating wind turbines and solar, he said, but noted that it's hard to place wind farms due to concerns about scenic views and avian wildlife, and that solar is expensive.

He said nuclear power represents a small proportion of the company's generating capacity -- it has four plants in Virginia -- but produced 38.4 percent of all power generated in the state in 2008.

"There are going to be increased energy needs and we need to find new, sustainable methods of meeting those needs. Being more efficient with the energy we already produced plays a major role," Webb said.

He noted that the power company's recent pilot programs, including putting smart meters on area homes has helped the company determine how much voltage to send down the lines.

"Previously, we knew how much energy was consumed at the end-user but we really couldn't measure when it was consumed and how much we sending down the line," he said. "With the smart meters, we discovered that we were sending far more electricity during nighttime hours than we needed and we were able to cut back on that."

Adams said that efforts like Dominion's smart meters, combined with efforts to make existing buildings more energy efficient, will help reduce the cost of producing energy and the cost of using it.

"If you can make a community more efficient, you can effectively add capacity to the [power grid] for a cost of about 3 cents per kilowatt-hour as opposed to the 10 to 12 cents per kilowatt-hour it costs to pay for a new power plant," she said.