Area Development
It's natural to want to find the next hot spot for locating a business, but in an electrical system, "hot spots" are not a good thing. They can cause connection failures and costly breakdowns in breaker panels, buss work, transformers, and motors - and you can't even see them. City Utilities of Springfield can, though, using specialized infrared thermography equipment. The Missouri utility offers detection services to businesses in an effort to help prevent major service interruptions that would be painful to the bottom line.

The utility also offers a broad range of energy management services for businesses as well as residential customers. There are online and on-site energy audits, a wide range of rebates encouraging energy-efficient installations, and an EnergyWise grant program that offers further reductions in the cost of making the right efficiency decisions. The grant program is a recognition that some efficiency upgrades don't pay for themselves quickly enough in energy savings alone - a side effect of the otherwise positive fact that electricity rates are so low.