Learn About Utility Programs in Your Area

ENERGY STAR partners with about 700 utilities and other administrators of customer-funded energy efficiency programs that collectively serve 95% of U.S. households and spend more than $7.6 billion dollars annually on electric and gas efficiency programming (Source: ACEEE, December 2022). Their efficiency funding typically comes from utility customers (i.e., their funds are collected by the utility either through rates or a small surcharge), and as such has the potential to be stacked or braided with federally funded rebates.

State Home Energy Rebate programs also will likely have an impact on the ability of utility incentive programs to reach mandatory or voluntary energy savings targets and may have implications for electric system planning. Below are a few considerations for potential areas of coordination and/or collaboration.

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Program outreach:
- Utilities have direct lines of communications with their customers and increasingly data from smart meters and other sources to help target customers (e.g., low-income high energy using customers who could benefit most from upgrades).
- Some utilities with robust low-to-moderate income (LMI) program offerings may already have systems set up to help with income qualification.
- Programs with as much as 20 years of program history have developed relationships with retailers, contractors, and distributors that could be leveraged to help with the potentially enormous workforce need.
- Utilities have the potential to provide complementary offerings.
  - Mechanisms such as tariff-on-bill programs or other financing offerings can help customers cover upgrade costs not covered by a state rebate program.
  - If a utility offers incentives for measures not otherwise covered by a state rebate program (e.g., the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program does not offer incentives for windows), it can help customers further improve home efficiency and comfort.
Planning:
- Utilities need visibility into energy efficiency, building electrification, and electric vehicle adoption in their service territories to avoid over or under building capacity and infrastructure; they can also help inform where distribution feeders can handle substantial electrification without upgrades, and may be able to prioritize feeder upgrades if needed.
- Utilities also need to understand the technologies that are being adopted in their service territories to understand how load is likely to change and at what time of day, so that they can develop management strategies and integrate a complementary range of distributed energy resources such as energy efficiency, demand response, rooftop solar, and energy storage.
- Coordination could enable utilities to advance complementary offerings such as development of time-based rates and customer tools for managing to them, especially as renewables increase in the system. ENERGY STAR offers connected criteria for 14 product categories including water heaters, heating and cooling systems, and clothes dryers. The criteria, which are optional in many cases, provide a mix of user convenience, tools for saving energy, and grid services.

The following tools and resources are available to learn more:

Visit www.energystar.gov/dime, our manufacturer and retailer-facing tool, to search for existing utility incentives by state and product area. (Please note participation is voluntary so the results may not reflect all incentives in each state).
Learn about Inclusive Utility Investment, a program design that couples a tariff on bill mechanism with strong consumer protections.
Request a summary of or meeting to overview ENERGY STAR utility program offerings in your state by emailing your account manager. If you do not know your account manager, email, eeaccountmanager@icfi.com and identify your state.
Understand the features and benefits of ENERGY STAR certified products with connected functionality.