Most companies do their best to get you to use more of their product. But conversely, SaskPower has numerous energy efficiency programs to help individual customers and businesses use less power.
Megan Patterson, consultant in customers strategy and programming, spoke to the Estevan Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, explaining many of these programs, which can be found on SaskPower’s website.
She noted that SaskPower’s energy efficiency programs have added up to approximately 139 megawatts of power production. That’s the equivalent of taking 84,000 cars off the road, planting 37,000 trees or powering 53,000 homes.
“Our focus is helping our customers understand their total consumption,” she told the chamber, which had approximately 20 people in attendance for the luncheon meeting.
SaskPower offers online energy assessment tools for both residents and businesses. For businesses, it includes reference to what type of business it is, i.e. a restaurant.
Patterson noted that the company has a lighting incentive program, and that lighting is significant potential area to save.
“For most businesses, lighting is the biggest opportunity for savings,” she said, adding LED lighting is the easiest way to save money. It can pay for itself in as little as three years.
For customers whose power consumption is greater than 300,000 kilowatt hours per year, over $40,000 per year, SaskPower has a program which will have a consultant conduct a walk-through of the customer’s facilities and draw up a report for suggested efficiency improvements.
There is a net-metering program which allows customers who produce their own power, such as with solar panels, to build up credits to be applied to their accounts. A recent change allows those credits to now be built up over three years, as opposed to one year.
SaskPower has rebates for installation of solar power, at 61 cents per installed watt, up to $20,000 for projects up to 100 kilowatts.
A new program is the power generation partner program, which focuses on newer technologies or carbon neutral ones. That second category includes flare gas being used for power generation. The first category is for projects from 100 kilowatts to one megawatt, while the second is for 100 kilowatts to five megawatts. There is one intake period per year.
Patterson encouraged the usage of online access to accounts, as well as usage of a mobile app.
