Recently, many cooperative members have noticed increases in energy prices.  From the fuel for their cars and trucks to propane and natural gas for their homes and businesses, energy prices have gone up.  Thus, energy costs are becoming more and more important.

Now may be the time for your cooperative to re-look at effective energy efficiency, energy management, and load management options to help your members better manage their energy usage and control their energy costs.  Opportunities include improving energy audits, expanding energy education and other services like financing, rate incentives, home programs, appliance efficiency, and load management alternatives.

One area of specific focus, for example, may be the offering of energy efficient home programs.  Promoting higher standards of energy efficiency than existing local building codes will be valued by members who want to control their energy costs.  In addition, many home builders either haven't heard of advanced building techniques, don't realize how achievable they are, or have no incentives to include these features into their homes.

Using energy audits to fully assess energy efficiency opportunities within an existing home and then providing sound recommendations for your co-op member to improve their home may be a good starting point.  For cooperatives with significant levels of new homes in their service territories, a new home construction program may be worthwhile - perhaps tying it into already existing home programs, like the EPA Energy Star Home Program.  With new homes, there may be a segment of your members who are also interested in better air quality and improved environmental sustainability to the point where they would consider not just energy efficiency options in their homes, but renewable/green building opportunities as well.

Has your cooperative operated a load management program in the past that controlled water heaters; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and/or irrigation systems?  Is it still effective?  Load management technology has improved significantly over the last 10 years.  New systems include individually addressable switches, paging technology, 2-way communication, and integrated thermostats.  This technology provides greater flexibility and control and can be a cost-effective option for reducing wholesale energy costs.  Perhaps now is the time to re-evaluate this load management tool to improve benefits for both your members and your cooperative. 

When was the last time a cost-benefit analysis of your energy efficiency and load management programs was performed?  EnerVision has assisted a number of cooperatives with evaluation, program development and program refinements to programs like we have just described above.  Perhaps, a current cost-benefit evaluation of your existing programs would be the place to begin. 

For more information about effective energy efficiency and load management program opportunities, please contact Robert Duval at (888) 999-8840, ext. 7764, or e-mail him at robert.duval@enervision-inc.com.