from the ground up - The Tyee

How Smart Is ‘Power Smart’, BC Hydro’s Try at Saving Energy?Not very smart, says economist Mark Jaccard. But are we brave enough forCalifornia’s far more successful approach?By Christopher PollonArticle first published on March 9, 2011 by TheTyee.ca.I recently joined BC Hydro’s Team Power Smart,joining the nearly 300,000 British Columbianswho have signed up to date. Months of saturationmarketing -- through TV, the Hydro Power SmartOlympic Village and pitches from ambassadors atscores of public events -- finally compelled me totake a closer look.A personalized online analysis of my townhouse andhydro bill revealed what I’ve known all along: I’m aglutton for power and need to change. My family hotwater tank is hemorrhaging energy, the crawlspaceneeds insulation, and my cursed electric baseboardheating will exact a horrible toll as utility rates rise by50 per cent over the next five years.By luring me to the Team, BC Hydro hopes to changemy consumption habits: not only do they providepersonalized information on how to conserve, theypromise to pay me $75 if I can reduce my electricalconsumption by 10 per cent in a year.That $75 carrot is a tiny piece of the $30 million BCHydro spent on its eight residential Power Smartprograms in 2010, which collectively saved the utilityan estimated 78 gigawatt hours (gWh) last year (seesidebar). This is a drop in the bucket when you considerthat BC Hydro produced more than 50,000 gWhof electricity in 2009 (including independent production),and is counting on conservation and energyefficiency to account for 66 per cent of its incrementalelectricity needs by 2020.Power hogs? Don’t offer them rebates, says SFU’s Jaccard.Jack up their rates, and mandate efficient appliances.living pondering such things. I asked him about all theresidential customer-focused rebates and cash incentives-- including cash to scrap old fridges, buy energyefficient appliances and replace incandescent lightbulbs.Was the cost of all that, I asked, a smart investment inconservation?Jaccard said my question was “coherent” but backwards.“If you have an objective like energy efficiency,why do you assume we have to spend moneyto achieve that? We should spend zero dollars. . .eliminate the Power Smart budget, and use electricitypricing and regulation instead.”So I approached Simon Fraser University environmentaleconomist Mark Jaccard, a man who makes aThe erosion of conservation benefits60