Electricity costs for Minnesota consumers are rising faster, and more dramatically, than the national, historic average of 3-5% a year. This is due to many factors including inflation, data centers and new technologies like AI. That makes energy management for Minnesota even more important for homeowners and business owners.
Utility companies nationwide are offering multiple new programs like time of use, back-up relief, off-peak EV charging and more to try and combat the increase in energy demand during peak times of the day.
Some people will be more than willing to change their day to day lifestyle in order to capitalize on the lowest electricity rates of the day under a time-of-use pricing structure. However, the majority will resist the lifestyle changes required to do this.
The alignment of consumer and utility needs will never be perfect, nonetheless, consumers must have a way to ensure their energy needs are met at a price they can afford, and with the level of reliability they have come to expect.
Home energy management systems give homeowners the ability to use the least expensive power available from the cleanest available power source at all times. A home energy management system puts you in control of your energy cost, generation, and availability.
The Main Benefits of Energy Management Systems
1. Cost Savings
By automatically selecting the least expensive energy source for your home you will reduce energy costs. If you also add power generation, like solar, to the equation your savings will increase dramatically.
2. Energy Cost Independence
By adding some source of power generation to your home (solar, wind, etc.) you can take control of energy costs. As power costs rise for utility based energy every year, adding self supply energy and management strategies allows your costs to be fixed for the life of your system (typically 25+ years under a solar warranty).
3. Backup Power & Resiliency
Set the rules within your system to ensure you have energy available when a storm takes the grid down. Leverage the energy management system to make sure that power lasts as long as possible and serves your highest priority energy loads.
4. Increase Home Value
Studies show that adding solar alone can increase the value of your home by 4.1% or more. Imagine how great your ‘managed energy’ bill will look next to a home still dependent on the local utility and the whims of the energy market.
5. Ability to Stage Investment
Energy management can be built in stages with each investment building on the last. With each step you will move closer to your goal, whether it be lowering cost, achieving energy independence, back up power, etc. We start with a brief analysis to ensure the final strategy reflects your priorities.
The Elements of Home Energy Management Include
Effective energy management starts with an overview of your current home energy; how much energy do you consume in a month, what are your major energy appliances, how big is your home, ect.
This assessment will lead to a custom plan to help lower and stabilize your energy costs using advanced technology. The main factors used to achieve these results are
1. Choosing the Lowest Costs at Any Time
As utilities evolve how they sell energy, set rates, and create incentives, how and when you use energy will become more important. Energy management systems allow you to adjust your energy use based on utility billing.
- For example, you can set your energy management system to be able to switch to energy from solar or your battery when utility based power is most expensive.
2. Monitoring and Management Tools
Ongoing monitoring allows homeowners to confirm everything is working according to plan. Management enables you to make changes on the fly if needed or desired.
- For example, if there is a power outage, you may want to shift energy use to the most critical loads in your home. You can make this change from your phone wherever you may be at any time.
3. Self Generated Energy
For residential homes we recommend solar energy. By creating your own energy from the sun you can greatly reduce your reliance on utility grids while also avoiding rising rate prices.
4. Energy Storage
Home batteries are so much more than back up power. Smart batteries can help you avoid peak pricing by using stored energy when rates are highest.
5. Smart Panel
An all in one smart load management center for your home. Controlled entirely through an app this appliance can give you circuit level detail on how much energy you’re using and where that energy is going, making it easy to turn off circuits that are leaking energy.
Why Energy Management is the Solution & Why Now?
1. Economics
Energy cost increases are accelerating and the utilities are struggling to keep up with energy demands. Extremely high energy costs on the east and west coasts, rolling brown outs in California, and grid instability in Texas provide examples of where things are headed for Minnesota as population and stress on local utility grids increase.
2. Change How You Consume Power, Not How You Live
Most people cannot or will not make the lifestyle changes required to minimize their energy costs. Creating a system that aligns with your lifestyle while avoiding high utility based energy costs is essential.
3. Reduce Carbon Footprint
Most energy management systems take advantage of clean, renewable energy. While reducing your carbon footprint is not the primary driver behind implementing energy management, it is an excellent benefit!
The Problem with Depending Only on the Utility Grid
1. Utilities Constrained In How They Buy and Sell Energy
Utilities must meet the needs of all customers and their pricing programs represent a balance between the public need, regulatory requirements, and corporate financial obligations. As long as you are dependent on the utility for all of your power you will be constrained by how you can buy power and what you have to pay for it.
2. Having a Plan vs. Having No Plan
Many consumers do not look at their energy costs long term because the prevailing logic is that utility costs are unavoidable (think: death, taxes, and utilities).
We challenge this assertion by creating a path where you can take control of your energy by generating, storing, and managing it. The baseline is, you will be paying for energy either way, having a plan to lower and stabilize your costs long term so that you are in control of what you spend and where is the smartest step forward in a market that never decreases in price.
In doing this you can avoid a significant portion of the ‘utilities’ in the Death.Taxes.Utilities. Unfortunately, we have not come up with a solution to the death and taxes issue, yet.
3. Energy Scarcity is Becoming More Common
Rolling brown outs have become an unfortunate norm in certain parts of the country. The Texas utility infrastructure learned a hard lesson about resiliency a few years back. AI related data center growth will soak up any available energy generation capacity as quickly as the data centers can be brought online. Recent legislation has favored the deployment of nuclear, coal, and other fossil based sources to meet increasing demand. While these sources may be viable, they cannot be deployed or scaled quickly. In a world where scarce energy prices will rise, choosing a stable, controllable source of energy is becoming essential.
Get an Energy Management Plan for Your Minnesota Home
The bottom line, if you want lower bills and a home that feels better in winter, start with a clear plan instead of guessing. Energy management for Minnesota doesn’t have to be difficult.
For more information on energy savings in Minnesota, you can find out more at the Minnesota Department of Commerce & Energy.
More importantly, Powerfully Green can help! If you’re ready to start lowering bills and having more control over your energy, schedule an energy assessment with us today.