On February 9, consumer-owned and investor-owned utilities joined by key energy efficiency advocacy groups, sent a letter to DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman jointly recommending new national standards for energy efficient distribution transformers.
The organizations signing the letter included: APPA, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE), and the Alliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (AC-EEE), and the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, Inc.
The letter further notes that APPA's and EEI's members, together, own approximately 33 million distribution transformers that are essential equipment for the electricity system. It goes on to say that "improved efficiency standards for distribution transformers ensures that more of the power generated at power plants performs useful work and reduces electricity losses in the distribution system."
The signatories on the letter urged DOE to adopt a tiered approach for incorporating these standards for new transformers, and offered to work with DOE to achieve this goal.