When it comes to fending off the most damaging impacts of our changing climate, energy efficiency has to be the No. 1 priority. It provides New Jersey and our nation the most timely, impactful and cost-effective way to meet drastic carbon-reduction goals.
Recognizing the critical role energy efficiency plays, PSE&G, 10 years ago, established two energy efficiency programs aimed at helping hospitals and residential multifamily buildings become more energy efficient.
The results are impressive: We have helped 36 hospitals and 800 multifamily buildings shrink their carbon footprints and save millions of dollars on their energy bills. Together, our Hospital Efficiency and Residential Multifamily Efficiency programs have saved enough electricity to power more than 10,000 homes for a year and enough natural gas to supply almost 2,000 homes for a year. We also have helped participating hospitals realize an average annual energy cost savings of more than $400,000 – with some saving well over $1 million per year – and greatly increased the comfort, convenience and safety of building tenants, many of whom are senior citizens and lower-income families.
PSE&G’s programs recently were recognized by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy when it named both initiatives as exemplary programs following a national review. The ACEEE cited the Hospital Efficiency and Residential Multifamily Housing programs as two of the nation’s outstanding energy efficiency offerings, based on their effectiveness and innovation in helping customers save energy and money.
PSE&G’s Hospital Efficiency Program also was recently presented with the Smart Energy Decisions Innovation Award for its work to make New Jersey hospitals more energy efficient.
PSE&G’s hospital and multifamily housing programs each remove major barriers to large-scale energy efficiency improvements by providing upfront funding for the total cost of the work and interest-free, on-bill repayment for the customer’s share of the costs, which is typically between 30% and 40% of the total.
While we are very proud to be recognized for our hard work, we also realize that there is much more that needs to be done.
PSE&G’s Hospital Efficiency Program has garnered interest from nearly all of the hospitals in our service territory and currently has a waiting list of projects because many of the hospitals where we have made energy efficiency improvements would be good candidates for additional work to save even more energy. Our New Jersey service territory also has no shortage of apartment buildings that could use help with energy efficiency. Beyond that, we have also identified customers such as nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools, colleges, universities, municipalities, small businesses, non-profits and more as candidates for energy efficiency assistance. We have seen widespread support for our continued efforts from all of these entities.
The energy efficiency portion of PSE&G’s recent Clean Energy Future proposal would offer all of our customers – both residential and commercial, and including those detailed above – with options for lowering their energy usage and reducing their bills. The effort would provide PSE&G customers with access to energy savings opportunities from 22 programs, with an emphasis on hard-to-reach segments like low-income, multifamily, small business, hospital and health care, and local government customers.
We have already accomplished much and look forward to the opportunity to do even more.
My power has been out 3 times in one week. Evesham township. Today on 6-5-19 workers shut the power down again to work on something. No notification was given. I asked a PSE&G worker in front of my house why there was no notice, he said he knocked on my door. This is a complete lie. This company obviously cares very little for how important customer service really is.