Energy Incentives and How You Can Get Your Rebate

Most of our customers know there are energy credits or rebates offered by power suppliers, but often these incentives are ignored or get tossed out the figurative window when the focus is to get the new equipment installed and operating. We decided to do a bit of research and find out who our customers need to contact and what the typical process is to obtain the rebates offered to them.

Power companies typically offer rebates for energy efficient upgrades to windows, insulation, lighting, and “custom incentives.” The most common type of incentives that our customers would benefit from fall under the Custom Incentives category. This category of incentive involves a pre and post on-site evaluation by an Energy Specialist from your local utility. They will assess the amount of energy savings your upgrade ACTUALLY saved and issue a rebate according to the amount of energy saved; around $0.33/kw hour saved up to 70%of the equipment cost.

Recommended Process to Follow

1.   Contact your local utility PRIOR to upgrading your building/system.
2.   An Energy specialist will come to your facility and evaluate your power usage, review your planned upgrade and make any suggestions as to how to maximize your energy rebate.
3.   Purchase and install the new equipment.
4.   Your energy specialist will return to your facility and re-evaluate your power usage to determine the amount of rebate you are eligible for.
5.   Receive your rebate up to 70% of the upgrade cost.

There is another form of incentive for businesses who make energy efficient machine upgrades as well. Even if their planned upgrade will use more power, it may qualify for a rebate if the machine output is more efficient than it was. For instance, if your new machine requires more energy BUT has a much higher output than your previous process, you can receive a rebate based on energy saved per board foot. Follow the “Recommended Process" listed above to receive incentives for this type of energy efficient upgrade.