The other day, I bought a 4 pack of 17 watt compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) at my local grocery store for $1.99. Yep, two bucks. Actually, I bought two they were so cheap. This is far below market cost for this product and the difference between their real value and the price I paid was paid for by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), the electric utility of Northern California. The product and merchandising told me on the product package and the signage in the store.
How, or maybe why, does the utility pay for lightbulbs? I’m
glad you asked. Here’s the whole story, and, to be honest, it is the reason
that our company so much supports progressive change by incremental steps.
When I finished college I spent 6 years working with Northern California businesses asking them to purchase these new age miniature light bulbs that screwed into sockets but were actually fluorescent (among other energy saving solutions of the day). Sylvania had just introduced them and in a setting like a hotel, restaurant or other place that had lights on a lot, the financial savings in energy paid for the bulbs in a year or two.
At the time PG&E was running this new fangled business concept that calculated that the ROI was better to help customers save energy through rebates for energy conservation measures than it was to build new capacity to absorb new demand. So for every $11 bulb I sold, I’d fill out paperwork to send to PG&E, to get the PG&E customer $5 back. Simply speaking, that cut the payback timeframe in half for my customer.
Now, it seems that PG&E has abandoned the hassle of the rebate paperwork and decided to just buy the bulbs and put them into grocery stores at a ridiculously low price. What a bonanza for the consumers!
What most folks wouldn’t realize, unless you follow this stuff like me, is that back in the 80s when So Cal Edison and PG&E (both publicly owned, but, state regulated) were running these cutting edge rebate programs, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of little projects were implemented across the state of California. Lighting conversions, A/C upgrades, water heater improvements, glazing of glass, caulking of doorways, motion sensors for lighting, daylight sensors for night lighting, you name it, and these two utilities have underwritten part of the cost. What’s the result you might ask? Well here it is:
California today uses 40% less energy per capita than the national average. Yep, that’s 40%,
as in almost half, as in one of the ten largest economies in the world uses 40%
less energy per capita than the average of the rest of the largest economy in
the world. Or, to put it differently, California
Not surprisingly, rates have climbed over the 25 year period, too, so not many feel actual savings in their pocketbooks. But, the net result to PG&E……….significantly reduced investments in new capacity, has kept prices much lower than had it needed to invest in coal power plants or a nuclear reactor or something. Now that’s green.
Having personally been there for the earliest programs, I am a firm believer that it’s the cumulative value of lots of little things that can make a big difference. It may not be the first step that gets noticed. It may not be the second or even the tenth, but, at some point, one looks at what would be had no steps been taken versus what is because lots of steps were taken and the difference is dramatic.
