By Craig Johnson, Senior Consultant, NV5 Clean Energy
Energy affordability is increasingly front of mind for households and businesses alike. Rising utility bills are putting real pressure on budgets, and it’s understandable that customers are asking why. Unfortunately, we are starting to see clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives being framed as key drivers of these higher costs. But the reality is more nuanced—and important to get right.
In our experience working with states, utilities, and program administrators, the biggest contributors to rising energy costs are largely external to clean energy investments. Volatile fuel prices, aging infrastructure, increasing costs in bringing new supply online, load growth from large data centers, extreme weather, and the increasing cost of maintaining reliable systems are significant drivers. These pressures have been building for years and are now being felt more acutely by customers.
At the same time, clean energy and energy efficiency are not just part of the conversation—they are part of the solution. Energy efficiency remains the lowest-cost resource available to reduce bills, helping customers use less energy in the first place. Strategic investments in grid modernization, demand flexibility, and distributed resources can also reduce long-term system costs and improve resilience.
It’s true that large-scale energy transitions require upfront investment. However, focusing on small near-term rate impacts can obscure the longer-term benefits: reduced exposure to fuel price volatility, more predictable costs, and more control for customers. In fact, many of the most successful affordability strategies are those that integrate efficiency, electrification, and clean energy deployment with targeted bill assistance and rate design improvements.
As the energy landscape evolves, it’s critical to ground affordability discussions in data and system-wide perspectives, including the full life cycle costs of investments in energy infrastructure. In many places, clean energy and energy efficiency investments are being scaled back because they are the most visible and easiest portion of the customers bill to adjust. In practice, however, these programs are among the most effective tools we have to manage them. The challenge – and opportunity – is to continue aligning policy, program design, and investment strategies so that the transition delivers both cleaner energy and more affordable outcomes for all customers.