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February's PUF Says Aloha

Spent Thanksgiving week in Hawaii. Plus a couple of days of the week after. Four of the days with either Hawaiian Electric or the Hawaii Public Utility Commission. Or both in the case of that sunny Tuesday, spending the morning with the utility and the afternoon with the Commission.

Though the beaches and waterfalls and forests of Maui were stunning, and though the food on all three islands we visited was spectacular, I have to say that our time with the good people of the utility and the regulator was the highlight. Yes, I know. That says it all about me, but hey.

Mickey M. vs. Energy Efficiency

Disneyland won’t be the biggest attraction in town, in Anaheim, on February 17 to 20. Nope. It’ll be the thirtieth annual conference of the Association of Energy Services Professionals over at the Anaheim Marriott. A thousand or so from our industry — our industry’s top experts in energy efficiency — will be gathered there to celebrate what increased end-use efficiency has accomplished in the last three decades and to plan the next strides of the next decades.

At NARUC, Tom Edison's Birthday!

Speaking of upcoming conferences, NARUC’s Winter Meeting is right around the corner. Where would you possibly want to be in mid-February instead of Washington, D.C.? Where the conversations about consumers, cost of service, climate change and decarbonization, coal retirements, commissions, interconnections, community solar, capital rates, court reviews, etc. will all be as cool as the D.C. air and the atmosphere at the U.S. Capitol.

Gratis, Gratuit, Free

If you can get there, to Charlotte, by plane, or by car, or by bus, or by boat (which could be a real challenge), then you can get by the gate for zip, zero, zilch. Because if you’re with a state utility commission, state consumer advocate office, state legislature, state governor’s office, state energy office, or a state whatever, the fee to attend Electrification 2020 giga-conference is gratis, gratuit, free.

Nominate Public Power's Leaders!

My absolute favorite part of each year’s National Conference of the American Public Power Association is the general session when they give out the individual and utility excellence awards. This year, the awards session will fall on June 9, during the 2020 National Conference in Long Beach, California.

June 9 is a great day for APPA to do this. It’s actually when solar power got its start. On June 9, 1905, Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize-winning breakthrough on the photoelectric effect was published in Annalen der Physik.   

$3.04 Decrease

In the two years from November 2017 to November 2019, the Consumer Price Index for electricity rose 1.08 percent. While the overall CPI for all goods and services rose nearly four times as fast, 4.27 percent.

What this means, firstly, is that if the average consumer paid an electric bill of $100 in November 2017, and used the same amount of electricity in November 2019, the electric bill would have increased ever so slightly to $101.08. It would have increased by one dollar and eight cents.

Job Opportunity at Oregon PUC

The Oregon Public Utility Commission, the PUC, headquartered in Salem, Oregon and located in the heart of the Willamette Valley, is seeking an accomplished leader with excellent people management skills and solid utility policy and regulatory experience to lead the PUC’s Utility Program. Join the Oregon PUC in this exciting opportunity as the Utility Program Director, which supports the agency’s work addressing evolving regulatory and business issues affecting utility regulation and energy in the State of Oregon.

World’s Fair for Our Future

Remember going to the World’s Fair in Queens? Oh, ok, so you weren’t born yet, in 1964 and 1965.

Well, I certainly was born before then — so long ago, practically at the dawn of civilization — and went to the World’s Fair with my parents and then my friends. There were so many exhibits and activities there it was impossible to take it all in. You needed a pre-planned strategy in order to see the best stuff for you.