Starting this summer, some Marylanders will have a new way to keep up with the Joneses — on saving energy, and money.
The state Public Service Commission recently approved a pilot program by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. that will give 25,000 of its customers bimonthly reports that show how their energy habits stack up against those of 100 other ratepayers who live in similar dwellings and, in particular, the 20 percent of that group who use the least amount of energy.
Participants in this pilot program, for which a start date has not been set, also will receive personalized conservation tips as well as access to BGE's other energy-saving programs offered through the statewide Empower Maryland initiative.
The reports, compiled by an energy efficiency company called OPOWER, have been used by utilities in California and elsewhere and "give people a context to evaluate their own energy consumption," said Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, a senior research associate for the University of Colorado's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.
The researcher helped analyze a number of residential feedback programs provided by utilities for the nonprofit American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy. The group found that methods such as OPOWER's are cost-effective, offering noneconomic incentives while most programs offer rebates or other savings.
Utilities nationwide have reported energy usage declines ranging from 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent within six months of offering the reports to customers, regardless of the time of year or the climate, according to BGE.
BGE plans to analyze the results of its pilot to determine whether to expand this program to the rest of its more than 1 million residential customers. Money collected in BGE bills will cover the $323,000 pilot, according to BGE's application to the PSC.
The program will start with written reports, but later the utility might provide the information through a website, said Mark D. Case, BGE's senior vice president for strategy and regulatory affairs. That's a more cost-effective way to provide those details, he said.
These enhanced bills don't provide the level of benefits of another energy-saving program BGE has in its pipeline, the $835 million "smart meter" initiative, Case said. That program, which allows consumers to monitor energy use in real time, would permit two-way communication with the utility, allowing it to detect outages, for example.
BGE contends that smart meters would save $600 million in operating costs over the life of the proposed 15-year program, and consumers could save as much as $2 billion by cutting their consumption during peak periods, such as summer afternoons.
"Both [programs] are important, just not at all equivalent," he said.
The energy research group's study found that home energy reports tend to have a smaller impact on an individual customer's use than smart meters paired with a real-time display or a Web portal. But Ehrhardt-Martinez points out that the billing reports are less expensive than smart meters.
And, she said, "most people read them." That means the participation in energy-saving programs tends to increase with the reports, with up to 70 percent of people taking an action in response.
"If you're a utility or a policymaker and your main objective is to [produce] a larger amount of savings in your state, then enhanced billing would be a greater way to go," she said.