When was the last time that you called your local electrical utility to thank them for their investments in support of increased energy efficiency?
Oh, you say you've never thanked the power company for the increased interest in and sales growth of T5 and T8 lighting systems, electronic ballasts, dimmers, occupancy sensors, NEMA® Premium motors, and solar energy gear? Well maybe you should!
Fortunately for the Green Building construction segment, the utility industry is firmly behind helping American consumers, businesses and organizations reduce their energy consumption.
Consistent promotion by the Utility Industry has been a powerful driver behind the continued expansion of Energy-Efficiency as a growth industry. Fortunately, even in the depths of this terrible recession utility industry support has continued to pay dividends for everyone involved with the application of products and technologies designed to reduce electricity consumption, as well as those that produce renewable energy.
If the connection between the utilities and your own company's sales isn't crystal clear, just try to imagine electrical distributors and contractors shelling out over $6 BILLION this year to help spur more consumer interest in energy-efficient solutions. Fact is, the good old utilities in the U.S. and Canada are investing that amount as we write this, and everyone connected to electrical, lighting, lighting and building controls, LEED certified construction, and solar and wind energy should offer a big "Thank You!" to Big Power.
At the heart of the utility industry's efforts is the Consotium for Energy Efficiency (CEE), a national industry group whose members include over 100 leading utilities and organizations having a vested interest in reducing America's energy usage ( www.cee1.org ).
A look at the 2009 CEE Annual Report and Efficiency Program Report illustrates just how important energy efficiency has become to the utility industry. CEE's 2009 Annual Report includes feedback from energy efficiency program administrators in 46 states. Since 2006, the combined budgets reported for electric and gas energy efficiency programs in the U.S. have more than doubled – growing from $2.6 billion to $5.3 billion in 2009. In 2009, the industry invested $4.4 billion to promote electric energy efficiency here in the U.S. with the greatest funding going to the combined commercial and industrial sector and load management efforts (44%), and residential programs (29%).
That's a lot of bucks being spent on education, rebates, incentives and market transformation programs designed to make it easier for distributors and contractors to market and sell green solutions.
Of great importance is CEE's role in helping to benchmark specific categories of energy-efficient products. CEE has been a leader in formulating and sharing standardized accepted specifications for energy-efficient products which has allowed utilities to recommend CEE-approved lists of more efficient products from many manufacturers, including motors, lighting, and ENERGY STAR products.
CEE has also spread the word on energy efficiency with the development of efficiency program templates and tools such as the Motor Decisions Matter promotion program behind NEMA® Premium labeled products. These efforts have made it easier for local adoption by individual utilities that increase their rebates, refunds, educational efforts in their efforts to curb electricity consumption and
Amazingly, in the midst of the current receesion, the utilities have significantly increased their expenditures to help their customers curb their energy appetite. CEE reported that the combined efficiency program budgets reported by both U.S. and Canadian members now total $6.1 billion, an increase of 36% over 2008!
So why not take a minute to call up your local utility and thank them for all the green support – and greenbacks – they're supplying to make energy-efficient solutions the top-selling category in our business.