TY - JOUR
T1 - Energy conservation in electric utilities
T2 - An opportunity for restorative economics at SaskPower
AU - Curtis, Monica
AU - Khare, Anshuman
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge SaskPower for the information provided by individual staff members, their review of this paper and support for its publication. They also acknowledge Athabasca University’s Centre for Innovative Management for offering a very relevant and insightful course in Sustainable Development and Business under which this paper was developed. Monica Curtis manages the retail business development area within SaskPower, an integrated electric utility serving Saskatchewan. Responsibilities include product development, product management and marketing of customer energy management services for residential, business and industrial markets. Ms. Curtis has over ten years’ experience in energy management programming with electric utilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. She holds an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from the University of Manitoba and a Masters in Business Administration from Athabasca University. Anshuman Khare works as an Associate Professor for Operations Management at Athabasca University in Canada. Earlier he has worked as a Research Scientist for the University Grants Commission, India. He teaches Operations management and quantitative analysis. His research interests are Japanese Business philosophy and responsible manufacturing. He has done his post-doctoral research at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan on a Japanese Government Scholarship (1995–97). He was a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany and worked on environment related techno-managerial issues in automobile manufacturing.
PY - 2004/5
Y1 - 2004/5
N2 - Utilities can profit through direct financial and environmental benefits, and increased shareholder and customer value. Where demand side management (DSM) programs cost less per kilowatt-hour than it would cost to generate the same amount of electricity, energy conservation offers a viable supply option, reducing the need for large capital expenditures in generating capacity. It may also improve the efficiency of transmission and distribution assets and reduce operating and maintenance costs. To deliver DSM, utilities can employ awareness/information programs, energy management and technical and training services, financial incentives and tax measures, which may be implemented through voluntary programs, regulation and government expenditures, financial incentives or new business ventures. The lower discount rate in electric utilities, when compared to most customer businesses, makes utility DSM more cost effect than alternative business models. Using SaskPower, a vertically integrated electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada as an example, this paper demonstrates how selling efficiency rather than power offers utilities both a supply option and a business opportunity. SaskPower can accrue financial and environmental benefit, while meeting and exceeding customer and stakeholder expectations. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities energy conservation represents for electric utilities.
AB - Utilities can profit through direct financial and environmental benefits, and increased shareholder and customer value. Where demand side management (DSM) programs cost less per kilowatt-hour than it would cost to generate the same amount of electricity, energy conservation offers a viable supply option, reducing the need for large capital expenditures in generating capacity. It may also improve the efficiency of transmission and distribution assets and reduce operating and maintenance costs. To deliver DSM, utilities can employ awareness/information programs, energy management and technical and training services, financial incentives and tax measures, which may be implemented through voluntary programs, regulation and government expenditures, financial incentives or new business ventures. The lower discount rate in electric utilities, when compared to most customer businesses, makes utility DSM more cost effect than alternative business models. Using SaskPower, a vertically integrated electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada as an example, this paper demonstrates how selling efficiency rather than power offers utilities both a supply option and a business opportunity. SaskPower can accrue financial and environmental benefit, while meeting and exceeding customer and stakeholder expectations. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities energy conservation represents for electric utilities.
KW - Electric utilities
KW - Energy conservation
KW - Kyoto Protocol
KW - Restorative economics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1842584493&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0166-4972(02)00116-5
DO - 10.1016/S0166-4972(02)00116-5
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:1842584493
SN - 0166-4972
VL - 24
SP - 395
EP - 402
JO - Technovation
JF - Technovation
IS - 5
ER -
