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.

Since 1995, Connecticut’s businesses have been using 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. The Connecticut Siting Council attributes this increase (PDF file) to the large size of new homes and greater use of consumer electronics and appliances, especially air conditioners.

When residents turn on their air conditioners, statewide electricity consumption increases substantially. On the hottest days of summer, Connecticut’s primary power plants are unable to meet the additional demand and older plants are brought into service. Because they are used sporadically, many of these older plants are permitted to emit higher concentrations of pollution during the limited time they operate. In Hartford, for example, several jet engines linked to generators operate on hot days with no emission control equipment. As a result, Connecticut residents generate the most air pollution on the hottest summer days when air quality already is the most unhealthful.

Residents’ demand for electricity is projected by utilities and state agencies to increase substantially. This rising electricity use will create immediate impacts including more air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and effects on fish and other aquatic animals near the power plants, as well as indirect impacts. Indirect impacts include demand for new power plants, fuel pipelines and power lines. 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: 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 appliances help to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. 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 basic standard set 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 by the federal ENERGY STAR program for each state. In 2006, 40% of refrigerators bought in Connecticut were ENERGY STAR efficient. This percentage had increased from 2001 through 2005 before dropping in 2006.

Trends have been similar for other ENERGY STAR appliances including (in descending order of ENERGY STAR models’ market share) dishwashers, air conditioners and clothes washers.

Electricity: Efficiency at work: The third graph shows trends in the efficiency with which Connecticut’s economy uses electricity to produce goods and services.

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 2005, Connecticut’s GDP increased 3.2% from the previous year (to $172 billion in 2000 dollars) while electricity consumption increased 2.4%.

To produce a dollar’s worth of goods and services, Connecticut’s economy has been using electricity more efficiently every year since 1995, with the exception of 2001 through 2003.

With rapid advances in energy efficient technology, it should be 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.< p="">