Saving energy is a state goal.

It can be achieved through conservation, or not wasting energy, and through its efficient use, which means reducing the amount of energy needed.

Energy-conscious consumers can save themselves money, help the state and country by trimming the need to import energy, and improve the environment by reducing pollution created when energy is produced.

Environmental groups have argued that increases in conservation and efficient use of electricity, as well as the development of renewable sources of energy, should be pursued before the state builds new fossil-fuel and nuclear plants. The state's electric utilities, while backing increased conservation efforts, have said they alone will not be able to meet Virginia's growing energy needs.

A large chunk of potential savings can be found at home.

Residential energy use accounts for 24 percent of all energy use in Virginia.

It trails only the transportation sector, which represents 30 percent of Virginia energy consumption, and leads the industrial and commercial sectors, which use 23 percent each, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Cutting the growth rate of residential energy use will require efforts to cut electric, natural-gas and petroleum use.

Electricity use provides one of the greatest opportunities for residential conservation.

Electricity accounts for one-half of energy consumption in the home. Natural gas makes up two-fifths, and petroleum and other sources provide the rest.

The General Assembly has set a goal to cut anticipated electricity use in 2022 by 10 percent of what was consumed in 2006. Doing so, according to the state energy plan released last fall, would defer the need to add power plants that could produce 3,900 megawatts of generation, or enough to supply nearly 1 million homes.

Because Virginia traditionally has had some of the nation's cheapest electricity, cutting back on its use has never been a high priority. But the rising cost of fuels that produce electricity, and electricity itself, could change those attitudes.

"We want to provide consumers with the tools and opportunities to conserve and to save money," said Bob Fulton, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power's conservation efforts.

"What it comes down to is rather than to make a conscious effort to conserve, we want [conservation] to become a lifestyle," he said.

Plan aims to curb energy growth.

The Virginia Energy Plan aims to cut the growth rate of all energy use so that by 2017 it mirrors the growth rate of the population. That would represent a 40 percent decline.

While the disparity in growth rates has slowed in recent years, total energy use in Virginia grew 206 percent between 1960 and 2005 while the population increased 90 percent.

Conservation and efficiency improvements are the nation's biggest energy resource.

The energy not used today as a result of conservation efforts since 1973 exceeds the amount now produced by any single fuel, even petroleum, according to the Alliance to Save Energy, a public-private coalition that promotes clean energy use.

"Energy efficiency and conservation provide the least costly and most readily deployable energy-resource options available to Virginia," the state energy plan states.

"Virginia has invested less in energy efficiency and conservation than some other states and therefore still has significant shortand long-term opportunities for efficiency and conservation." Contact Greg Edwards at (804) 649-6390 or gedwards@timesdispatch.com.