Energy Efficiency Plan
What is Duke Energy’s Energy Efficiency Plan?
Duke Energy is committed to finding new ways to help your business address rising energy costs with environmentally sound, low-cost options. Our Energy Efficiency (save-a-watt) Plan is a new regulatory approach to energy efficiency. The plan supports the development of energy efficiency conservation programs to help our customers save money and energy. By using less energy, we can help keep energy rates lower and reduce the need to build additional power plants.
This energy efficiency approach was approved by the South Carolina Utilities Commission on May 6, 2009. Because an energy effciency Rider has yet to be approved, an Opt Out Provision is not currently offered. Both the Rider and the Opt Out Provision will be determined in the 2009 South Carolina rate case proceeding.
Active participation in the PowerShare® and Smart $aver™ Incentive program this calendar year (2009) will have no impact on a customer’s ability to opt out in future years.
Features & Benefits
- Provides all customers with new Energy Efficiency programs, including energy assessments, incentive rebates and demand response, that make access to energy-saving equipment easy and affordable.
- Reduces electricity consumption, helping Duke Energy avoid building new generation facilities.
- Represents an important departure from traditional energy efficiency regulatory models where utilities are compensated based on how much they spend rather than the results they produce. Under the plan, Duke Energy will only be paid for verified energy reductions.
How It Works
- Duke Energy will assist customers in “saving watts” rather than relying solely on building new power plants to meet energy demands.
- Duke Energy will provide all customers with energy efficiency programs to help them conserve energy.
- By implementing energy efficiency programs, customers will pay approximately 10 percent less than the cost of building and operating new power plants.
- After four years, the energy efficiency programs are projected to displace the need for 1,700 megawatts of capacity, or about 745,000 megawatt hours. As the results from new energy efficiency programs are realized, the company will retire older coal plants, significantly reducing emissions.
- The cost associated with implementation of our Energy Efficiency Plan will be shared among all customers. The amount of those costs will be a part of Duke Energy’s rate filing scheduled this summer. Customers will not incur any costs associated with an energy efficiency rider in 2009.
