Upcoming Events


03/09/2010	Renewable energy discussion - Thibodaux
03/10/2010	Louisiana Public Service Commission Business and Executive meeting
03/10/2010	Practical heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) for homeowners
03/12/2010	LA Green Corps Business Advisory Group Breakfast
03/31/2010	Louisiana Green Corps Graduation

Make a Donation

Please make a donation through JustGive.org by clicking below:

Your donation will support our watchdog efforts to keep our utility bills under scrutiny, and also keep energy educational programs and resources available. A donation of $25 or more automatically makes you a member of the Alliance!
Learn More

Policies

The Alliance for Affordable Energy advocates the following energy policies at the state and local level:

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Energy Smart

Energy Smart is a citywide energy efficiency program for New Orleans. The program was passed by the New Orleans City Council in July of 2008, and in March of 2009 $11 million in seed funding was allocated as part of the Entergy New Orleans rate case. (read more)

Integrated resource planning (IRP)

IRP is a method of utility planning that requires utilities to evaluate supply- and demand-side management options on an equal footing and to meet customer demand using the least cost alternative. Currently the New Orleans City Council Utility Committee is developing an integrated resource plan for Entergy New Orleans, and is supported in this by the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)

An RPS is a policy that requires electric utilities to purchase a set and increasing amount of power from renewable energy sources, such as biomass, wind and solar. Currently twenty-eight states have implemented renewable portfolio standards, as has Washington D.C. The Alliance promotes an RPS for the state of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Public Service Commission is currently investigating the feasibility of this policy. (read more)

Feed-in tariffs (FiT)

The Renewable Energy Feed in Tariff (FiT) is a supply-side incentive for renewable energy production that has been described by National Renewable Energy Laboratories as the best policy for increasing renewable energy production in the world. Essentially, a Feed in Tariff is a contractual agreement whereby a utility agrees to buy power over a long period of time, often 15-20 years, from producers at above-market rates. It is different than a standard power purchase agreement in that it provides non-discriminatory access for any size of power developer (a citizen, municipality, farmer, business, utility or any power supplier) to supply electricity to the grid under terms of a transparent standard contract. (read more)

SMART GRID

A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. Such a modernized electricity network is being promoted by many governments around the world as a way of addressing energy independence, global warming and emergency resilience issues. In principle, the smart grid is a simple upgrade of 20th century power grids which generally "broadcast" power from a few central power generators to a large number of users, to instead be capable of routing power in more optimal ways to respond to a very wide range of conditions.

The industry group GridWise Alliance has produced the following explanation of smart grid technologies.