Dive Brief:
- State regulators have approved a modified slate of residential and commercial energy efficiency and demand side management offerings for Kentucky Power Co., authorizing the utility to continue 10 existing programs for residential or commercial customers, while adding two and discontinuing another.
- Among the new programs being offered, one will help residential customers monitor energy use and educate them about ways to reduce consumption.
- The utility's energy efficiency initiatives are included in the company’s demand side management (DSM) programs, which are funded through a surcharge on customers’ bills.
Dive Insight:
In addition to approving Kentucky Power's DSM programs, state regulators also approved revised surcharges to reflect the changed program and resulting costs. The Public Service Commission said a residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month will see the surcharge decrease by about $1.07 per month, to 38 cents per month. Commercial customers will see an increase of 49 cents per month to $1.47 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours.
Kentucky Power will add programs helping consumers monitor and reduce energy use as well as paying customers to relinquish operable but surplus refrigerators and freezers. The utility will discontinue a program that involved testing and tuning-up of commercial and residential heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems. It was no longer cost-effective, the utility said in its application.
The utility will continue to offer programs that include energy audits, energy efficiency and weatherization programs, financial incentives for commercial customers to reduce energy usage through installation of energy-efficient equipment, and a program to encourage the use of high-efficiency electric products in homes.
The PSC also noted it has already directed Kentucky Power to file a study – ordered in an earlier DSM case – of the potential benefits of energy efficiency programs for its industrial customers.
