Barriers to innovation and change: lack of awareness

Anne Murray Choudhary has brought to our attention the following observation on the Ontario Power Authority (OPA). OPA has decided a few years ago that a kilowatt saved is much cheaper than paying for a new kilowatt of installed capacity, and has therefore embarked on an ambitious program to reduce electricity demand. A key challenge they face is to address the lack of consumer awareness, a major barrier to change:

The Conservation Bureau of Ontario, which spearheads OPA’s efforts to reduce electricity, conducted a market research study in 2007 in an effort to evaluate consumers' attitude towards energy conservation. The research objective was to "identify barriers to electricity conservation knowledge and action". The findings by the firm Environics show that --
• Energy (generally) and electricity (specifically) are not salient issues for most Ontario consumers
• There is public awareness of a supply/demand issue in the province, when prompted
• Cost of electricity is not a “hot-button” issue – except in the North
• Concerns emerge about environmental impacts of production and consumption, when prompted - but not the focus of public’s environmental concerns

The Conservation Bureau had also conducted a workshop in 2006 to gather intelligence on barriers from low-income housing residents. The workshop participants identified "Education and Communication", "Small Appliances and Lighting (efficiency)" and "Building Envelop and Systems" as key barriers. The Conservation Bureau's analysis also consists of specific mitigation plans for each barrier included in its workshop report.

So as part of its renewed efforts to educate consumers and communicate at the community level, the Conservation Bureau of Ontario, published in January 2nd, 2009 edition of the Kanata Kourier-Standard, a piece entitled "Conservation Zone" written by Peter Love, Chief Energy Conservation Officer of Ontario. Peter Love gives readers 10 easy steps to save money, and energy, in 2009 as a New Year's Resolution:

"1. Schedule a home energy audit. The auditor can tell you which home energy efficient changes are eligible for provincial and federal grants. Call 1-888-668-4636 and make an appointment today.

2. Install a programmable thermostat in your home. Every degree you drop reduces the heat costs by up to five per cent.

3. Change your furnace filter regularly - dirty filters make the fan work harder. Similarly, a clogged clothes dryer lint trap uses more energy and clothes take longer to dry.

4. Inspect exposed heating ducts and where you feel warm air leaks seal the ducts with special metallic tape. This keeps heat going where you want it.

5. Turn off the lights when you're not using them. Replace old, incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. CFLs use 75 per cent less electricity and lasts longer.

6. Participate in Energy Conservation Week (May 17-23, 2009) and World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour on March 28, 2009.

7. Pull the plug on your old fridge and call the Great Refrigerator Roundup (1-877-797-9473). Older refrigerators can cost four times as much to run as a newer ENERGYSTAR model.

8. Buy cold-water soap for doing laundry. 85 to 90 per cent of energy used by washing machines goes towards heating the water.

9. Dryers alone account for six per cent of total household energy use in Ontario - use a drying rack indoors or an outdoor clothesline if possible.

10. Install weather stripping and caulking around windows and "sweeps" that seal the bottom of your outside doors. This can cut your heating bill by ten per cent."

Articles like the one in the Kanata Kourier-Standard can be found in many Ontario community papers and illustrate OPA’s continued efforts to increase consumer awareness of the benefits of energy conservation.

(Written by Anne Murray Choudhary, Telfer School of Management)

Barriers to innovation and change: Ontario Power Authority and "interval metering"

As part of our ongoing exploration of barriers to sustainability, here is an interesting snippet from the ongoing efforts of Ontario Power Authority. OPA has embarked on an ambitious effort of conservation and demand management to reduce the horrendous costs and environmental impacts of bringing on new generating capacity. In the process, they commissioned a number of studies on consumer behavior in the various client sectors. Here is one study that identified very clear barriers to energy conservation, targeted at clients that use "interval metering", or pay for their electricity consumption on an hourly basis at a variable price which fluctuates throughout the day according to supply and demand. Price ‘spikes’ can happen at any time during the day for a wide range of reasons. These clients tend to be larger commercial or industrial clients.

The theory goes that clients will schedule their operations to the time of day when there is a lower price, and avoid times with peak price. But in practice, as revealed in the course of the meeting in 2007 with interval meter customers, there are a number of real barriers to make this work properly. As the meeting notes show,

“...the barriers evolved into both ‘macro barriers’ and ‘micro barriers’:

Macro barriers: those broader issues that fall within the scope of policy makers, regulators and program administrators. Most interval meter customers find these barriers to be complex, confusing and beyond their ability to affect. They preferred to have the confidence that a ‘system’ is working efficiently on their behalf without requiring an understanding of the specific issues. This confidence would be achieved by ensuring that a transparent system is in place which would weigh the true costs and benefits of energy efficiency against supply options.
Micro barriers: those issues faced by customers at the facility level. These barriers exist as a result of “too few resources chasing too many projects” (resources were considered to include people and funding). Overcoming these barriers requires a range of solutions, including assistance from conservation and demand management (CDM) programs that are developed in response to their challenges i.e., incentives, tools, etc. and presented in the ‘customer language’ "

These barriers were specifically identified by "interval metering" customers, but in fact have elements that are much broader than that as we will see in our continued exploration.