Incentives for Energy Conservation in the Commercial and Industrial Sectors

The commercial and industrial sectors consume over half of the United States' electricity. Several studies have indicated that this consumption can be reduced by as much as 40 to 50 percent through cost-effective energy conservation (e.g., Dubin, 1977; Taussig, 1978). Examples of conservation actions include installation of low voltage lamps, more effective placement of lights, electronic controls for air conditioners and lights, evaporative precoolers on air conditioners and refrigerators, heat recovery systems, and so on. These actions have been found to offer, on average, exceptionally good rates of return, both to the firms that take the actions and from a social perspective (Train and Ignelzi, 1987).