Credit: (Jill Rose from Pixabay)Public Service Electric & Gas had no problem drumming up interest nearly three years ago when it offered an array of programs to customers to cut their gas and electrics bills.
The utility says now it performed tens of thousands of home energy audits, customers acquired more than 11 million high-efficiency LED lightbulbs, and 16,000 appliances were recycled in the 30 months after the utility rolled out its expansive $1 billion energy efficiency initiative.
Approximately 300,000 customers ended up using a whole lot less gas and electricity, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 1 million metric tons. The customers who participated in these and other energy-saving programs can expect cumulative savings of $300 million on their utility bills annually, according to PSE&G.
“Energy efficiency is one of New Jersey’s most cost-effective tools in reducing energy use and fighting climate change and we are proud of our continued role in providing programs, resources and strategies to help New Jersey and our customers achieve this goal,’’ said Karen Reif, vice president of PSE&G Renewables and Energy Solutions.
PSE&G won approval from the state Board of Public Utilities in the fall of 2020 to offer 10 different energy efficiency programs, and launched them the following March. The programs were geared to align with the 2018 Clean Energy Act, which directed the state agency to ramp up programs to reduce energy use in New Jersey.
Energy efficiency programs are widely considered the most cost-effective way of fighting climate change and reducing rising energy bills — people don’t have to pay for energy they don’t use.
Incentives, discounts
PSE&G’s programs allow residential customers to receive discounts on high-efficiency products and energy-efficient equipment and services, including free home energy assessments. For business customers, the offerings include whole building energy efficiency retrofits.
Under the 2018 clean-energy law, utilities were required to reduce electric use by 2% a year and gas use by 0.75%, targets that need to be achieved within five years of the program’s launch. “We feel confident we are on a path to getting there,’’ Reif said.
The utility was pleasantly surprised by the interest in its home energy audit programs, she said. “With Covid, we experienced much more demand than we originally thought because people were spending more time in their homes.’’
Recently, the BPU approved a $280 million extension of the current PSE&G energy efficiency programs, half of which are geared to the residential sector and the other to commercial and industrial sectors. A nine-month extension puts PSE&G’s programs on the same regulatory schedule as other utilities in the state, relative to energy efficiency programs.
Another key benefit of those programs is to create new jobs in the emerging green economy. PSE&G’s programs have resulted in it hiring 2,200 people, including many from environmental justice communities. “They are not just jobs, but careers,’’ Reif said.
