By Rachel Gold, Utilities Program Manager/ Puerto Rico’s energy efficiency targets from Governor Ricardo Rosselló are big. For he did sign legislation that sets ambitious energy-saving targets. Thereby joining a number of states that are pushing. So Puerto Rico’s energy efficiency targets go alongside renewables. All in response to climate change and resilience challenges.

This new legislation sets Puerto Rico’s energy efficiency targets to be on a path saving 30% of electricity by 2040. As well as to meet 100% of its supply with renewable energy by 2050. It also therefore supports other building blocks for energy efficiency. That’s including a lead-by-example requirement in government buildings. So efficiency’s inclusion in future utility system planning. As well as performance-based regulation that aligns utility incentives with expansion of efficiency and other clean resources.

When implemented, this legislation will represent a massive step forward for the territory, where energy efficiency programs have lagged behind other parts of the United States, and where renewables represented only 2% of the territory’s electricity supply in Fiscal Year 2017. As of the 2017 ACEEE State Scorecard, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the territory’s utility, did not offer meaningful efficiency programs to its customers, and it lacked regulatory mechanisms to incentivize efficiency investments…

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Source: ACEEE