Crises to Crises: A 30-Year Retrospective on the Electric Utility Industry and Energy Efficient Lighting Technology

Abstract

This paper reviews the change in energy efficiency of lighting technology during the 30-year period between the energy crises of the 1970’s oil embargo and last year’s de-regulated wholesale market, electricity price spikes. Lighting power requirements have been cut in half for new commercial buildings, dropping from 3 to 1.5 watts or less per square foot of conditioned space. Fluorescent lighting technology has changed from four-foot T-12 lamps requiring 40 watts, to high-lumen, 32-watt T-8 lamps. Copper intensive and noisy magnetic ballasts have been replaced with lightweight, high frequency electronic ballasts lowering power from 10 to one watt per fixture. Today this trend continues with the movement away from Edison’s incandescent lamp to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that save 70% of the electrical energy. In response to the wholesale electricity prices spikes, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance partnered with regional electric utilities and retail stores to offer CFL discount coupons. As a result, CFL sales rose from about 500,000 in 2000 to over 8 million in 2001. This is one more example of how energy efficiency programs sponsored by the nation’s electric utilities have driven both technology and the market to change.