demand side management Archives - Independence Institute

Smart Thermostats Are Looking Like Dumb Policy 0
- September 21, 2022
Earlier this month Xcel Energy made national headlines when it locked out 22,000 customers in Colorado from adjusting their thermostats as temperatures rose into the 90s. Those affected were customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program, which allows the company to adjust the temperature setting on internet-connected “smart thermostats.” In exchange
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Independence Institute Tells the Public Utilities Commission to Pump the Brakes on De-Facto Gas Ban 0
- September 15, 2022
The PUC is holding a Zoom public comment hearing on these rules on Monday, September 19th at 9am. People who wish to participate in that hearing can find more information here. They can also submit written comments referencing Proceeding No. 21R-0449G by clicking here. In the 2021 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly passed SB21-264,
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Xcel lies. Reality dies…and so does affordable power 0
- January 21, 2018
How Xcel is playing loose with numbers and gaming the system in its favor. Xcel Energy is a monopoly with no competition. Still it spends millions of ratepayer dollars on PR campaigns and lobbyists to convince the media, lawmakers and its hostages customers – the entire state – that it is “responsible by nature.” The
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Colorado’s electricity rates continue to rise 0
- September 16, 2017
By Grant Mandigora Executive Summary In 2001, Colorado electricity consumers enjoyed some of the lowest electric rates in the country. The 15 years since haven’t been so kind to ratepayers. For more than a decade, elected officials, PUC commissioners, industry and advocates have told Colorado ratepayers that they could transform the state’s electricity generation away
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Xcel paying power producers to take excess electricity?0
- May 2, 2017
I've documented that Xcel Energy has excess electricity generation capacity. I just didn't realize how much. According to a source close to an electricity wholesaler and generator, "Right now they can buy power cheaper than they can make it. A week or two ago Excel [sic] was paying us $18 a MW to buy power fromREAD MORE
Scathing PUC Chair dissent blasted economics of Demand-Side Management 0
- April 30, 2017
Supporters of so-called Demand-Side Management (DSM) say it’s an economic development tool. That’s not true. DSM is a misguided, harmful transfer payment from low income ratepayers with no choice to a preferred group of ratepayers, often commercial and industrial. No one makes this argument better than former Colorado PUC Chairman Ray Gifford, now a partner atREAD MORE

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