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National Grid has seen big energy efficiency gains in tiny Rhode Island, the smallest state geographically in the U.S.
In this podcast interview (click the player above), Laura Rodormer and Matthew Ray, senior strategic business analysts for National Grid, describe three programs:
- How customers use home energy reports
- A program that gets churches, schools, and municipal leaders involved in efficiency
- SolarWise, a program that provides higher solar payments to customers who achieve high levels of energy efficiency and also produce solar power. This isn’t a net metering program, Rodormer notes.
National Grid is an electricity and gas delivery company that operates in Great Britain, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The energy efficiency program, which has been around for more than 30 years, has saved ratepayers more than $320 million in bill savings over the lifetime of the measures installed, says Rodormer.
In the home energy report program, customers receive reports in print and digital form 6 to 12 times a year, says Ray. “It shows them how they compare with neighbors and also can be tailored to show where they are most likely wasting energy,” he says. It includes competitions with neighbors that reward customers who save the most energy. People who move into the utility’s territory and sign up for this program are most likely to take action, he notes.
Under the “Find Your Four” program, National Grid invites city officials, pastors, business leaders, schools and others to help spread the word about energy efficiency. A competition among students that asked them to create videos about efficiency resulted in 10,000 people voting and communicating about efficiency, says Ray in this interview.
Under SolarWise, customers who achieve high levels of efficiency are eligible for bonus solar incentives. “If they achieve high levels of energy efficiency they get 39 cents/kWh from what they generate in solar. It’s a tariff. A fixed fee for a designated period of time,” explains Rodormer. “A standard customer gets 37 cents/kWh. But the high energy efficiency customers get higher payments per kWh.”
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