CEA Eyes Impact Of Proposed California Energy Rules for Computers That CFA, CU Back

CEA looks forward “to continuing to work” with the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, “as they look for additional energy-saving opportunities in IT products and equipment," Doug Johnson, vice president-technology policy, said in an emailed statement Thursday on the CEC’s proposed new energy-efficiency standards for computers and monitors. Private-sector "innovation" and the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program “are the key drivers of energy efficiency for computers and monitors, as evidenced by their low levels of energy consumption today,” Johnson said, reflecting longstanding CEA policy favoring energy efficiency improvements in tech products through private-sector initiatives rather than regulation. Energy Star was hatched as a public-private program decades ago by certifying computers “and has achieved tremendous success in the decades since,” he said. Recent CEA studies have found the average desktop computer uses 43 cents’ worth of energy in a week, and that the average annual energy consumption for a monitor is 54 percent lower than it was in 2010, Johnson said. “Even though there are more consumer electronics in U.S. homes than ever, those devices now account for a lower percentage of electricity usage per household." The Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, in a joint statement Thursday, had a different take. CFA and CU cited a 2014 CFA analysis that found that between 2000 and 2013, “the amount of electricity gobbled up by computers, game consoles and network connectivity devices increased more than five-fold in the U.S., reaching an average of 800 kWh per year per household.” CFA and CU hail the proposed CEC standards as “strong and reasonable” and fair to manufacturers as they afford them “considerable flexibility” in compliance, “thereby stimulating competition to meet the standards” in the least costly ways, they said. The proposed CEC rules would take effect in 2018 for desktop computers and 2017 for small servers, work stations and notebook computers. “Few industries have worked to make more dramatic improvements in their return on energy investment than the technology sector, and estimates are that computers have attained over a 266 billion percent improvement since the 1960s," Chris Hankin, Information Technology Industry Council senior director-environment and sustainability, emailed us Friday. That finding was from a 2011 American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy report that measured energy use improvements for the five decades through 2010, Hankin said. The proposed CEC standards “would reduce the average energy use for a typical computer, monitor and display, without affecting the functionality or performance, using available, off-the-shelf technologies,” said a final-draft CEC staff report, posted Thursday on the commission’s website. The proposed standards statewide would save more than 585 gigawatt-hours per year statewide in energy use of computer monitors and displays and 2,117 GWh per year in computers, “after the inefficient existing stock is replaced,” the report said. It estimates the greenhouse gas reductions that would result would equal 634,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year for computers, and 183,000 metric tons of CO2 yearly for monitors and displays, the report said. In terms of monetary savings, the proposed rules would save Californians $434 million a year in electricity bills, $340 million of that through more energy-efficient computers, it said. The proposed rules set performance standards for computers “that are not prescriptive and allow the industry flexibility to choose how to comply,” the report said. “The energy savings are achievable through a combination of hardware and/or software improvements. Computer manufacturers can choose components that use less energy and are cost-effective to consumers. Software enhancements can be implemented at low costs and can reduce wasteful energy consumption by implementing hardware idle modes that already exist.” CEC plans a “staff workshop” on the proposed rules for April 15, 10 a.m., at commission headquarters in Sacramento, said a public notice posted Thursday on the CEC website. The workshop will be webcast, and will "provide industry, stakeholders, and the public an opportunity to seek clarifications on the staff report analyses and to make comments” on the proposed rules, the notice said. Written comments on the proposed rules are due May 15 at 4 p.m. PDT in docket 14-AAER-2, the notice said. Anyone wanting to make a scripted presentation at the workshop must submit the presentation by April 13 and may not exceed 10 minutes, it said.