Just In! (from NY-GEO)

Below are G.E.T.’s top picks from NY-GEO’s weekly “Just-In” Newsletter. Just In! features three fresh news item summaries on the NY-GEO home page every Monday. NY-GEO members get the full newsletter, which includes an advanced look at the website articles, plus event listings and job openings and several bonus article summaries with links, usually on the Saturday before website publication.

Canadian Study: Policies to Drive Ground-Source Heat Pump (GSHP) Adoption: This report was done by Dunsky Energy Consulting for the Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI). It surveyed GSHP friendly policies in Germany, Austria, New York State and Sweden. Perhaps the key point raised is the misalignment between costs and benefits. GSHP installations provide superior greenhouse gas reductions and their consistent efficiency reduces peak electricity demand and avoids the cost of constructing new power plants. All ratepayers and citizens benefit from these benefits. In contrast, costs are solely absorbed by the building owner in the absence of effective policies. For those working in the policy area, it’s helpful to see a myriad of policies examined together and contrasted with each other.  A couple nuggets from the report: “…we found that a reasonably ambitious adoption rate of GSHPs could save Canadians between $49 and $148 billion relative to electrification through air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) alone, which comes down to about $40,000 in savings per installed GSHP system.” And: “Today in Sweden, a long-time leader in adoption, 20 to 25% of its two million single-family homes are heated by GSHPs.” Thanks to Ontario’s Dave Hatherton for this tip.

Pacific Gas & Electric Asks for Quicker Depreciation in Light of Declining Gas Projections – A tip from NY-GEO member Bob Wyman who has been very active in NY utility rate cases: “In its 2023 GRC (General Rate Case) California’s PG&E gas utility argues that they should be allowed to accelerate depreciation of their gas assets to compensate for shortened asset lives as a result of ‘reduced demand due to energy efficiency, building electrification resulting from fuel switching from natural gas appliances to electric, climate change, and an increase in greenhouse gas (GHG)-free resources. … It is projected that this gas throughput decline will occur as core customers begin electrifying and eliminating gas usage in their homes and businesses. This will lead to a declining base of core customers to spread gas system costs to with rate increases needed to cover the gap.’  PG&E argues that: ‘The sooner the Commission begins to address the impacts of decarbonization, the more time that will remain to recover costs as equitably as possible and over a larger customer base. Delaying the recognition of these impacts will compress the time over which costs are recovered, result in a higher rate base, and may leave customers who remain with a disproportionate share of the costs of the Company’s gas system.’ The chart below projects PG&E’s expectations for gas sales declines given various decarbonization scenarios:”

Dandelion Co-Founder’s Five-Minute Ted Talk – Take a quick master class on the transition from fossil fuels to renewable heating and cooling. Dandelion Co-Founder Kathy Hannun gives a dynamic look at “what it takes to keep a room ‘room temperature” in this high-quality, fast-moving but easy to grasp video. Thanks to NY-GEO member Irene Weiser for this tip.