Above: KEEA & EEA-NJ Executive Director Jeaneen Zappa welcomes attendees from the podium.
Soaring grid demand. Groundbreaking new technologies. Dramatic (and sometimes hostile) new policies for energy efficiency and clean energy. Rapidly shifting workplace demographics and an ongoing “silver tsunami”. The 12 months since KEEA & EEA-NJ’s last Policy Conference has been defined by change. For our 2025 event, we gathered 270+ industry members, energy experts, and policy leaders to discuss change in the energy efficiency landscape—how to understand it, how to navigate it, and how to thrive within it.
Our “Navigating Change” keynotes set the tone, taking to the stage on Days 1 and 2 of the conference to tackle issues like energy system transformation and rising demand. Molly Bauch (Accenture) kicked off September 10 with an impassioned look to the global energy future, with Steve Nadel (ACEEE) sharing hard-won insight on national and state policies on that afternoon and NJBPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy giving an “insider” perspective on the region’s energy efficiency opportunities on the morning of Day 2.
Molly Bauch Anticipates A Renewables-Driven, Flexible Grid
Kicking off day one of “Navigating Change” was Molly Bauch, North American Connected Energy Lead for Accenture, who delivered a candid and riveting overview of the national energy landscape. “We are at a fundamental tipping point,” Molly said, adding, “Over the last three years, more common and more severe climate events have contributed to billions in climate-related damages across the US.” Facing the imminent challenges posed by a 20% projected load growth over the next few years, a 30% increase in utility prices over the last four years, and the “silver tsunami”—where over 50% of utility workers are eligible for retirement in the next seven years—we need solutions now.
“The age of electrification has arrived,” Molly asserted, following up with: “Solar and wind are growing faster than any other power generation source now in the history of ever.” Molly called the expansion rate for renewables “staggering”—noting that it took the world 68 years to reach 1TW of solar energy, but just two years to double that, and we will reach 3TW by the end of this year. Molly pointed to Pakistan, where farmers learned on TikTok how to install solar on their farms and market shops, projects that have replaced other power and now account for more than half of the country’s power generation in less than a year.
Her remarks went on to highlight the ongoing need for broader energy efficiency deployment and the critical nature of becoming more flexible with our grid. “Flexibility is emerging as the solution,” she affirmed, pointing to the deployment and aggregation of virtual power plant technologies that, once deployed, can be “40% cheaper than a natural gas peaker plant.” Molly went on to detail barriers for deployment such as low customer awareness, high costs, and fragmented experiences—and met those with solutions such as engaging in hyper-targeted customer engagement, innovative pricing, “whole-picture financing,” and frictionless installation, operation and maintenance. “This is a huge asset,” Molly declared of grid flexibility. “Remember (that there is) $300 billion in flexible loads and virtual power plants that can be saved on the grid in a time where our rates are rising.”
Steve Nadel (ACEEE) On Why Energy Efficiency Still Matters
That afternoon, Steve Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, reminded everyone of the significant impact of energy efficiency, saying: “Energy efficiency delivers a savings of about $4,000 per capita for every man, woman and child in the US annually.”
Then he underscored his point. Steve showed a chart tracking 50 years of steep Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, moderate growth in energy productivity, and a nearly straight line for overall energy use. At first, that was puzzling—because we all know that plug loads have grown exponentially in the past 25 years as Americans embrace their devices. “But energy use has been about flat because of EE,” Steve said, adding that this is a huge victory and testament to the impact of conservation measures, improvements in appliance performance and other EE measures.
Still, he noted, we sometimes have to “sell” EE to skeptical people. “We know that EE reduces greenhouse gas emissions, reduces power demand, creates millions of jobs in EE and helps us to be competitive in the industries of the future. Then, of course, there is resilience and how our homes remain comfortable.”
Steve congratulated New Jersey on its rising ranking in the ACEEE state scorecard to break into the top 10 at #8, and noted that at the #22 spot, PA is still doing okay. New Jersey also outperformed Pennsylvania in relation to the amount of spending per capita on programs for income-eligible residents, with the Gardens State 11th nationally with $38/person and the Keystone State at 16th with $21/person. He emphasized the need for states to prioritize reducing high energy burdens.
Looking forward, Steve made these recommendations: incorporate home energy scores, embrace the highest-efficiency building codes, accelerate commercial building performance benchmarking (including a nudge to New Jersey to hasten rollout of their program), drive more industrial efficiency programming, and increase demand response in programs.
Commenting on the alarm around PJM’s rising rates and the worry over prospective increases in loads from data centers, he said, “Not all data centers that are proposed will be built. Utilities have told me: ‘if we get ten proposals, we figure one or two of those will get built.’” That’s because data centers propose many projects and wait to see which ones will hit obstacles. “We need more sophisticated modeling.”
But data centers hold huge potential for energy efficiency and savings, too. Not only with building performance measures at their own facilities, but also to reduce load at times of extreme peak, although he acknowledged that some are just too critical to use as part of reducing peak.
Lastly, Steve addressed rates and considerations tied to them. “First, Time of Use Rates—we will need to use them more and more. Make them opt-out, which allows people to choose. Second: We are also in favor of heat pump rates. Not to be a subsidy. But a portion of the utility rate is for fixed-cost and a portion for variable rates. Those with space heating tend to subsidize other ratepayers.” To address this, he recommended that utilities increase the fixed cost for heat pump customers and establish a lower cost for variable rate. “If PJM becomes a winter peaking scenario, this will be even more important.”
For electric vehicles, Steve flagged that fleets of vehicles are the game-changers for planning: “We’re looking for what I call ‘peanut butter loads’, where you can spread them sort evenly.” Facilities like an airport bus depot at 13 MW, or a truck stop proposal for 23.5 MW, mean that utilities and states need to be planning power distribution now for these loads.
Christine Guhl-Sadovy Showcases New Jersey Success Stories
PJM, prices, and grid capacity were still top-of-mind for attendees as Christine Guhl-Savovy, President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, delivered her morning keynote on Day 2. “How many people know what PJM is in this room?” President Guhl-Sadovy asked attendees near the start of her remarks. The vast majority of listeners raised their hands. “If I asked that question two years ago, would you all have the same answer?”
She went on to discuss the NJBPU’s response to challenging conditions in the PJM capacity market. “We are experiencing record-high prices for consumers,” she said. An NJBPU priority is using both regulatory tools and energy efficiency to reduce energy bills for consumers, she explained. “Because at the end of the day, a customer cares what their bill is, and the rate does not nearly matter as much. The bill is the big thing you’re paying. If rates are going up and it’s not within the regulatory authority of the BPU, we can still provide opportunities to stabilize bills or even bring bills down—and that’s what you all do here.”
To drive home her point, President Guhl-Sadovy shared some recent energy efficiency success stories from the Garden State. “In the last couple of years, my tremendous team at the BPU has brought me out to see some really exciting projects,” she said. “I want to highlight those, because I don’t always get to do that.” Projects discussed included a personal visit to learn about HVAC upgrades and cost savings at the Stockton Inn, a PSE&G project that lead to cooler community spaces at the Montclair Public Library, and a heating upgrade from New Jersey Natural Gas at the Dover, NJ HeadStart pre-school. EEA staff were gratified to hear her call out the “Energy Efficiency Stories” project, which showcases energy efficiency success stories in PA and NJ.
President Guhl-Sadovy tied the Garden State’s many energy efficiency successes to the Triennium program. “Through our BPU’s Triennium energy efficiency program, the first cycle reduced consumer utility bills by at least six hundred million dollars,” she said. “As you know, these measures have been installed, and they will continue to provide savings. The first Triennium also resulted in 1,400,000 metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emission reductions, which is equivalent to approximately 300,000 cars removed from the road per year.” Underscoring themes heard throughout the conference, she emphasized the connection between energy efficiency and a more affordable, healthier grid, observing: “This is really proof that these kind of smart investments are helping to pay off, not just for the direct consumer of the energy efficiency project or program, but for all of the repakers of New Jersey to ensure that we have not just reliable power, but that we’re helping to suppress costs by by reducing demand.”
President Guhl-Sadovy then congratulated Outstanding Public Servant EE Champion award recipient Stacy Ho Richardson (Deputy Director of the NJBPU’s Clean Energy Division) before fielding live questions from the audience. She touched on, among other things, solar incentives for low-income and non-English speaking customers, BPU efforts to address demand, and ways that individual contractors can engage effectively with BPU staff.