Consultants Forum Advertise
Subscribe
Close

  • Free for qualified executives and consultants to industry

  • Receive quarterly issues of Area Development Magazine and special market report and directory issues

Subscribe Now
Renew

Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

America's Public Power Utilities: Key Partners for Business in a Challenging Economy

Dec/Jan 10
The past year or so has been filled with tough business decisions for practically every company. Customers are spending less and in many cases are going out of business. Lenders have reined in credit dramatically. It has been increasingly difficult to keep everyone on the payroll, to keep benefits in place, and to keep from becoming overwhelmed by red ink. Companies have to mind their business and look out for their own interests - because who else will?

Yet as it happens, not everyone is guided solely by self-interest, even today. Communities are pulling together to support their people and their businesses, realizing that all will benefit when those who are struggling are given some assistance. Local and state governments know that they must help their employers survive and return to hiring mode, and are using whatever tools they have to provide that help.

Those communities served by publicly owned utilities are finding that they have an especially well-stocked toolkit. That's because public power providers serve no master other than their own communities - they have no profit motive and no investors to satisfy, only local leaders whose objectives are fully aligned with the needs of the community and its businesses. With the economy on the ropes, the public power sector has re-energized its programs designed to help business and residential customers achieve greater energy efficiency and manufacturing productivity, lower their costs, and weather the economic slump as successfully as possible.

Collectively, the effort supported by the American Public Power Association (APPA) is known as "Public Power Is Good for Business." The association is helping its member utilities do all they can to assist customers - commercial and industrial as well as residential - in energy management, conservation, efficiency, and carbon reduction. The results can be significant.

Helping Businesses Save Big
We've been trudging through what is often called the worst economy since the Great Depression. Can energy efficiency initiatives really make enough of a difference to be worth the effort? You bet. Consider some examples from public power communities across the country:

• Mention solar energy and most people are likely to think first about using sunshine to generate electricity. But the sun provides an excellent way to heat water as well. Solar thermal energy systems can be used to handle a building's main hot water consumption. North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1, or NCMPA1 for short, offers commercial customers rebates of $700 for each certified solar thermal panel they buy and install.

• When 3M decided to undertake a major energy-efficiency assessment at its Hutchinson, Minnesota, plant, it found a willing partner in the local municipal utility. The company sought to increase efficiency by at least 4 percent a year, and the Hutchinson Utilities Commission offered generous rebates for lighting improvements. The plant also focused on such areas as heat recovery, heat utilization and cogeneration.

• "Cool roofs" may sound like places for apartment dwellers to party on hot summer nights. To building owners, though, the term refers to roofs that reflect the sun's heat rather than transferring it to the building below. Having this kind of roof saves on energy costs, improves comfort and reduces the urban "heat island" effect that is bad for air quality. Providers of public power help businesses adopt cool roof technology through rebate programs - among the many that have developed such programs are the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and San Antonio's CPS Energy.

• Helping businesses adopt cost-saving, energy-efficient technologies is a major endeavor for the Salt River Project in Arizona. The utility provides an impressive menu of rebates through its SRP PowerWise Standard Business Solutions program. To help pay for lighting improvements, the utility offers 25 cents per watt of reduced demand and $30 for each occupancy sensor installed. Upgraded heating/cooling equipment can net a rebate of up to $100 per ton, and new motors can land a rebate of up to $990 apiece. There are rebates covering compressed air and refrigeration equipment as well. Any of these projects can reduce energy consumption as well as maintenance costs. The utility also connects businesses with expert consultation, information services and energy-efficiency training.

• In the public power community of Anaheim, California, businesses that are retrofitting inefficient equipment with approved energy-efficient equipment can qualify to have their building permit fees waived. That can be worth up to $5,000. There are heat pump incentives worth up to $25,000, special energy rates for new or expanding businesses that implement cost-effective and energy-efficient practices, low-interest financing for energy-efficiency projects, and incentives to help pay for thermal energy storage, to name just a few.

• Businesses can save a bundle - up to 20 percent - by ensuring that their heating/cooling systems are tuned up and working efficiently. California's Imperial Irrigation District Energy will help customers pay for tune-up services.

• As helpful as energy savings can be, it takes money to implement efficiency projects. Idaho Falls Power in Idaho helps businesses make the leap by offering zero-interest loans as well as rebates.

• It also takes expertise to reap the most savings through energy efficiency. In Springfield, Illinois, City Water, Light & Power operates a technical assistance program for business and residential customers. Services are free and are available to customers that have efficiency questions or that are experiencing efficiency-related problems. The program will even help customers design energy efficiency into new structures.

• Interest-free loans with terms of up to five years also are available from public power provider Holyoke Gas & Electric in Massachusetts, and the utility is in the technical assistance business, too. Its complimentary technical services include energy audits, power quality analysis, and rate analysis.

• Energy efficiency has been top-of-mind for decades in Washington's Snohomish County. The area benefited from successful energy-efficiency programs way back in the 1980s. Times and technologies have marched onward, and the Snohomish County Public Utility District has more recently replaced some of the lighting that it had upgraded in those 1980s efficiency efforts. The utility tends to get its customers interested in efficiency through lighting projects, and when those prove successful, it's a natural to move on to more major initiatives such as HVAC efficiency upgrades.

Exclusive Research