Lawrence residents soon may have an interesting opportunity to use technology to become a little smarter about their electricity consumption.

In the long run, pocketbook issues will prove more effective than new government policies in encouraging Americans to be more energy efficient.

In Monday’s Journal-World, it was reported that a national nonprofit organization had ranked Kansas 39th in the nation for energy efficiency policies, programs and practices. This isn’t a ranking of states’ actual energy efficiency, but a measure of government programs and policies that encourage energy efficiency.

State Rep. Tom Sloan, a Lawrence legislator who focuses on energy and utility issues in the state, noted that government programs to force energy efficiency are a tough sell and that he favors incentive-based programs.

Such programs often focus on encouraging people with tax incentives or rebates to make improvements that make their homes more energy-efficient. However, Lawrence residents may soon have an opportunity to experience another kind of energy incentive, the incentive of potentially lower electrical bills based on lower usage and avoiding peak electrical consumption periods.

Westar Energy has been selected to receive a $19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to implement a new “SmartStar” program in Lawrence. The proposed pilot program would install 48,000 “smart” electrical meters in Lawrence homes. Through the meters, Lawrence customers would be able to access detailed online information at Westar about their electrical usage on a day-to-day basis.

Increased monitoring of electrical usage will be optional, and many people may choose not to use it. For some, however, it could become a useful tool, or even a wake-up call, that encourages them to cut their electrical usage and, consequently, their bills.

The ultimate goal for Westar is to use the meters to try to reduce peak electrical demand periods and thereby reduce the need to build new power plant capacity to meet those sporadic demands. Efforts to reduce the peaks could include offering lower rates for non-peak electricity or encouraging the use of “smart” appliances that would operate only in non-peak times, such as at night or in the morning.

For all the talk about energy policy in the United States, Americans have shown relatively little interest in making lifestyle changes to conserve resources. Higher gasoline prices have had far more effect on decisions to drive less or buy more energy-efficient cars than any amount of talk about the need to conserve.

The same is true of other power sources. While the U.S. needs to pursue new energy sources, conservation also should be a key part of the equation. As a Kansas Corporation Commission representative noted in response to the state’s poor energy efficiency rating, “… the cheapest energy is energy that is not used in the first place.”

That statement seems pretty obvious, but it’s a difficult principle for many Americans to embrace. The installation of “smart” electrical meters in Lawrence could provide a meaningful incentive for people to connect their power usage more directly to the bills they pay and try a little hard to lower both.