I'm not a fan of any sort of outdoor advertising, but at least this bus stop piece in San Francisco promotes something I can get behind - desktop power management.
Convincing users to enable the embedded power saving features of their IT equipment continues to be a challenge, and I've been unable to posit a role for utility programs for individual users that would make sense, other than education and outreach which is of course what the Department of Energy is doing here.
I'm reminded of several great conversations I had with a start-up in the Bay Area five years or so ago. They had developed a web-based portal where users could enable power management features, with a reporting scheme that told them how much power and cost savings they achieved.
The start-up really wanted the utility to offer the service - which makes a lot of sense if the utility was willing to take on the marketing burden. That could be as simple as promoting the service on the utility website to more active efforts like bill inserts.
The problem I had selling the idea internally was an abject refusal to engage in anything that touches customer IT systems. The very small risk of claims that the power management service in some way affected a desktop was too great for a conservative utility to get their heads around.
(Although utilities pay incentives for the replacement of fluorescent lamps, with their toxic materials, as well as a host of HVAC changes that have potential associated risks, I ran up against risk aversion for other technologies as well. Don't get me started on wet cleaning technology...)
I suppose a company could bid in to a utility as a third party energy efficiency service provider, getting paid for the energy savings they generate. That would work fine but the start-up I talked with really needed the leverage of a utility branded and marketed outreach effort, so that avenue lead us nowhere I'm afraid.
The only bright spot then is utility programs that reward the installation of desktop management software for business users, leaving the heavy lifting of extending into the residential/single user market to the DoE and EPA.
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