Successfully Obtaining Custom Measure Incentives from Utilities
Often times, Customers have difficulty in obtaining incentives from various electric and gas utilities. Many Utilities has prescriptive measures that are already approved and incentives have already been determined, but this is not always the case. Many times, the energy conservation measures are determined by custom measures, and require a detailed amount of work to obtain the amount of incentive, if any, from the Utilities.
Acela Energy Group can assist Customers with obtaining incentives for unique and innovative measures not customarily seen by Utilities.
Customers either pays Acela Energy an hourly rate to assist them in obtaining an incentive, or if desired, a percent of the incentive amount.
Acela Energy Group Rebate Process
- Acela Energy Personnel discuss the various custom and prescriptive Energy Conservation Measures (ECM’s) that the Customer is interested in obtaining Utility incentives for.
- Customer determines locations to begin program with, focusing on those located in electric utilities service territories that have incentives, and high electrical costs.
- Acela obtains informational spreadsheet from Customer such as locations and pertinent contact information. Also copies of the Customers electrical and/or gas bills.
- Schedule various audit teams to begin detailed ECM audits of the locations in the specific order dictated by the selection spreadsheet.
- Acela Energy completes the detailed audits of the facility, and feed the electronic audit information to the office, to begin rebate calculations and project costing. Then specialized spreadsheets have to be developed to insure that savings calculations meet the detailed and often rigorist requirements of the specific electric utility.
- If the ECM(s) is determined to be a Custom Measure, Acela Energy personnel travel to the electric utility if necessary to meet with Utility Executives and make a presentation of the energy conservation measure(s). Product information and energy savings potential are also discussed.
- Individual proposals are put together for each location detailing the amount and type of ECM(s) for each location. Detailed, specific energy and demand savings calculations are created for each of the different scenarios.
- Acela Energy Personnel brings proposals to the Customer to gain their approval on the proposal/rebate applications, along with original signatures on the proposal/rebate applications.
- Acela Energy Personnel bring signed originals of the proposals/rebate calculations to the electric utility and time/date stamp the receipt of the documents at the utility.
- Periodically check with the electric utility in order to expedite the approval process. This is a substantial amount of phones calls and explanation of calculations to utility engineers, as well as, answering questions they may have.
- Gain approval on specific ECM(s), obtaining the amount of rebate, and informing the Customer of the total cost with rebate, and final simple payback and internal rate of return calculations.
- Acela Energy Personnel again meets utility personnel at each store to review the project, adjust counts, and gaining approval of the finish job.
- Assist in obtaining the rebate check from the utility
More Information:
Acela Energy Group Energy Procurement Solutions
Energy Procurement in a Competitive Environment
Selecting An Energy Procurement Consultant
Strategic Energy Planning – What is it and why you need it
