Indicators:  Leading Environmental Indicators*

Electricity

The average Connecticut resident uses more electricity every year.

Most appliances bought in Connecticut are not the most efficient models.

For three years in a row, Connecticut businesses have used electricity more efficiently to produce goods and services.

Electricity: Inefficiency At Home: The top graph shows that the average Connecticut resident uses more electricity at home each year than he or she used in the previous year. In 2003, households surpassed the commercial sector as Connecticut’s greatest consumers of electricity. Residential electricity use has increased steadily since 2000, reportedly because of an increase in the typical square footage of new homes and increased use of consumer electronics and appliances, especially air conditioners.

On summer days, when residents turn on their air conditioners, electricity consumption increases substantially. On the very hottest days, Connecticut’s basic power plants are unable to meet the additional demand, and older fuel-burning plants are brought on line. Because they are used sporadically, many of these older plants are permitted to operate with more lax pollution control requirements. As a result, Connecticut residents generate the most air pollution on the hottest summer days when air quality is already bad.

According to the Connecticut Siting Council (PDF), many Connecticut residents have been using electricity more efficiently in response to the higher electricity prices of recent years, except during summer heat waves. The result has been a growth in peak summertime consumption -- again, the time of greatest environmental impact -- even as growth in year-round electricity use has been slowing.

The vast majority of Connecticut’s electricity is generated from nuclear energy and the combustion of natural gas, oil and coal. Hydropower and other renewable resources are small but growing sources of electricity. Each source, renewable or not, has its own negative environmental consequences. Reducing those consequences will require Connecticut households to use electricity much more efficiently. Such efficiency can be attained in part with ENERGY STAR appliances.

Electricity: Inefficiency in the Kitchen:  In a typical home, the refrigerator consumes more electricity than any other appliance. (Central air conditioning uses more but is not in everyone’s home). To be labeled ENERGY STAR efficient, a refrigerator must operate using at least 15% less energy than the federal standards for household appliances set forth by the U.S. Department of Energy. It also must use 40% less energy than 2001 conventional refrigerator models.

ENERGY STAR appliance sales are tracked state by state by ENERGY STAR for each quarter. In 2006 (the most recent data available) approximately 40% of refrigerators bought by Connecticut consumers were ENERGY STAR efficient. This percentage had increased from 2001 through 2005 but dropped in 2006. In the last ten years, more than 250,000 ENERGY STAR refrigerators have been sold in Connecticut.

In Connecticut, trends have been similar for other ENERGY STAR appliances including clothes washers (48%) and dishwashers (94%), though the percentages of those appliances sold in 2006 that were ENERGY STAR labeled were much greater than for refrigerators. Air conditioner trends were similar, but in 2006 only a little more than half were ENERGY STAR efficient.

Public surveys (PDF) show conclusively that most people are aware of the ENERGY STAR label and what it means, so reasons other than awareness must be addressed to boost ENERGY STAR labeled products and stem the ongoing waste of electricity in homes.

The ENERGY STAR program was created in 1992 as a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to identify and label energy efficient products. By consuming less electricity, ENERGY STAR products help to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Electricity: Efficiency at work: The third graph shows trends in the efficiency with which Connecticut’s economy uses electricity to produce goods and services. Connecticut generally produced more goods with less electricity from 1995 to 2000, when the trend reversed for three years, then reversed again, favorably, in 2004.

State Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the total amount of goods and services produced within the state in a single year. Payment to employees constitutes about 60% of the GDP. In 2006 (the most recent data available), Connecticut’s GDP was $176 billion (in 2000 dollars), a 2.4% increase from the previous year, while electricity consumption decreased for the second straight year. In other words, the economy used electricity more efficiently; more efficiently, in fact, than it had in decades, demonstrating that with advances in energy efficient technology it is possible for Connecticut’s economy to continue growing while using less electricity.

*Leading Environmental Indicators illustrate trends in behavior or practices that can be expected to influence the condition of tomorrow’s air, water, land and wildlife.