Data Creates New Opportunities
John Hargrove is President and CEO of the Association of Energy Services Professionals. Mike Mernick is a Senior Vice President and the Director of Market Development for ICF's Commercial Energy Division. He has led ICF's Energy Efficiency business since 2006. Mernick assisted his first utility DSM client in 1987, and has served as the senior manager for ICF's support to the U.S. EPA's ENERGY STAR® Residential, Product Labeling, and Commercial and Industrial Programs. Michael Volker serves as the current Chair of the AESP. He is the first representative of a co-op to lead the AESP. Volker serves as Rates and Treasury Manager at East River Electric Power Cooperative. Sara Conzemius is a Founding Advisor and Co-Owner of ILLUME. She has over fifteen years of experience leading the planning, development, and evaluation of residential, renewable, and commercial energy efficiency programs. Conzemius is the immediate past Chair of the Board of Directors for AESP.
In prior articles, we focused on the important impact that the energy efficiency industry has had on the current North American energy economy. In this essay, we share our thoughts on the ways this segment will be challenged to drive innovation as it continues to mature. We also discuss the evolving role demand side management will play in the energy industry and the utility of the future.
All Grown Up
Over the course of the past decade, investment in utility-funded energy efficiency programs has grown to nearly ten billion dollars per year. To deliver those programs to customers, utilities added staff to help market, implement, evaluate and manage their investments. As those investments grew, an industry was born.
This industry would grow to serve and support those energy efficiency programs and help utilities meet their regulatory goals and requirements. The demand for energy efficiency expertise brought opportunity. It created organizations that touted their local presence, national and international experience, boutique technical experience, marketing prowess, and ability to apply evaluation techniques to improve program performance. They also touted their ability to satisfy regulators' demands for cost-effective results. And everyone was very busy.