Incentives Large and Small are Project Savings Treasure
February 20, 2018
Discovering energy incentives and rebates for LED lighting projects can often feel like treasure hunting.
You have to be at the right place at the right time. Often you must be prequalified to participate. Programs can quickly be depleted of funds or, as I talked about last month, funds go away all together.
While there is a thrill that comes with searching for incentives, getting the most out of the hunt can be a full-time job in itself. And you’ve already got a business to run.
As a full-service lighting + controls + IoT provider, EMC has an Incentives Team dedicated to hunting for energy rebates and incentives. It gives us the ability to not just look at the larger programs offered by our more than 200 utility partners, but also to search in smaller, unexpected places like local municipalities.
Sometimes municipal offerings mimic another utility program in the state. Other times multiple cities offer the same program—all identical but run through different departments.
It’s not just the big cities with energy incentives. For instance, an incentives program offered by East Central Energy, offset costs for an interior and exterior LED lighting project for Cambridge Regional Medical Center, an 86-bed hospital campus serving rural Isanti County. Incentives totaling $47,685 reduced facility project costs by almost 19%.
There are also local, owner-operated utility cooperatives with energy incentive offerings for facilities in their jurisdictions.
While these municipal and owner-operated utility programs tend to offer smaller funds, their application processes are often not as in-depth, making them easy to secure.
If you are handling your own incentives you don’t have time to hunt for these one-off opportunities. But we do. For every EMC project proposal we scour the local levels as part of our thorough search for rebates and incentives and provide a detailed report of all opportunities for savings.
If there is money hidden under your couch cushions, we are going to find it and put it to work for your program.
Stacy Delzer is Energy Management Collaborative's Manager of Customer Incentives. In this role she utilizes her knowledge of incentive programs nationwide to expedite the application process and secure maximum incentive dollars for EMC customers.
