Lynne Kiesling

Have you seen the Galvin Electricity Initiative Sad Socket ad?

In the half-century since our electric power system was completed, little has been done to update it — and it shows. We’re relying on an obsolete electricity grid that is dangerously vulnerable, even to forces as predictable as thunderstorms and as tiny as squirrels. And blackouts and power interruptions cost public facilities, businesses and households at least $150 billion a year. Power plants generate as much pollution as they do electricity, and then two-thirds of this energy is lost before it ever reaches the end-user. Meanwhile, consumers are no more than passive participants without real choice. [emphasis added]

The technology already exists to address these unhappy circumstances, save you money, improve the quality of electricity service and give you control.

But regulatory policies stand in the way of progress.

The Galvin Initiative’s website suggests five things you can do to help accelerate the transformation of the electric power network:

1. Use the power of the purse
2. Demand control — by federal law, your utility is required to provide you with a time-of-use rate and an enabling meter. Call them and ask for it!
3. Call for policy change — write your elected representatives
4. Use less power
5. Share your business story with the Galvin Initiative, to show how widespread and dispersed the inefficiency of the existing electric power network is