Appliance and equipment standards matter. Period.

Federal standards for the energy efficiency of appliances and equipment first took effect in 1988. Since then, those standards have proven to be a sizable contributor to overall energy savings in the Northwest, more than a fifth of the 4,000 average megawatts (aMW) we’ve saved over three decades.

(An average megawatt is utility-speak for a thousand kilowatts of electricity supplied continously for a year. For perspective, the city of Seattle consumes a little more than 1,000 average megawatts per year.)

So, federal appliance and equipment standards in the Northwest alone have already saved nearly enough power to run Seattle for a year.

Impressive, right? No compared to projections for the next 20 years made by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

The Council says federal standards will account for between 40 and 45 percent of the 6,000 average megawatts of cost-effective efficiency identified in its Sixth Power and Conservation Plan, the planning Bible for Northwest electric utilities. That’s enough saved energy to keep Seattle humming more than two years, without consumers or business owners having to make a single decision.

The moral of the story: standards matter. Period.

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