The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and National Grid today launched the Home Energy Savings Program, a new pay-for-performance residential energy savings pilot program in Central New York. This initiative will help provide opportunities for contractors to perform work and enable energy efficiency service providers to serve National Grid’s customers with innovative, energy efficiency services and solutions, reducing their overall energy consumption and costs.
Under the pilot, NYSERDA has committed to award up to $6 million in funding to energy efficiency service providers (selected through a competitive process) so that they can outfit approximately 1500 National Grid customers with new efficiency measures to help them save money and energy.
The selected service providers will be compensated over three years for achieving energy savings measured using advanced utility meter data.
For the energy efficiency providers, the program offers marketing support to help offset administrative costs. For energy delivery companies, like National Grid, the program’s pay-for-performance approach will potentially mitigate the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.
The performance-based model is expected to foster a “whole-house” energy approach which will support the installation of packages of measures such as insulation, air sealing, lighting, smart thermostats, high efficiency hot water heaters, and similar energy savings solutions to a larger portfolio of homes over a number of years. This more comprehensive and longer-term approach is expected to deliver additional energy and bill savings of 10 percent to 30 percent for customers. Energy efficiency pay-for-performance models have begun to emerge nationally with significant potential benefits to customers, energy efficiency service providers and utilities.
Today’s announcement builds on NYSERDA’s ongoing pay-for-performance strategy which includes Business Energy Pro, a collaborative pilot administered by NYSERDA and Consolidated Edison designed to transform the way we invest in energy efficiency. The program will provide a variety of services to help businesses in Westchester County and Staten Island save energy, upgrade their buildings, and improve their bottom-line including lighting, refrigeration, heating ventilation and air conditioning upgrades and controls, and wifi thermostats.
To submit a proposal to the Home Energy Savings Program solicitation, service providers must register in National Grid’s ARIBA system by November 20, 2020 and may participate in a pre-bid meeting on January 20, 2021. Bids are due February 22, 2021. Complete instructions can be found here.
Today’s announcement supports Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading goals in the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), including an energy efficiency goal of 185 Trillion BTUs in end-use savings in the building and industrial sector by 2025 as well as an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
