Conservation programs hit drought
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:23 AM PDT
By Courtney Sherwood
Printable version
E-mail this articleSo many people have taken advantage of the Cowlitz PUD's popular conservation programs that funds are dwindling.
To keep the program running, PUD officials this week announced plans to cut the subsidy for people buying energy-efficient windows and heat pumps.
Until now, the PUD would reimburse residential customers $5 per square foot if they replaced drafty windows with better-insulated windows, said conservation manager Jim Wellcome. Customers would have to pay the remaining $13 to $15 per square foot. Now the PUD will reimburse $3 per square foot for customers replacing windows.
Reimbursements for property owners replacing old heating systems with heat pumps will be cut from $1,100 to $900.
Low-income families still will be able to get more help with the costs of becoming more energy efficient.
At least seven in 10 local households have participated in the utility's conservation programs since they were introduced in the early '80s.
In the last year, 905 customers have taken advantage of the program, Wellcome said.
For homeowners, upgrades mean that their electric bills will go down.
Meanwhile, every kilowatt hour saved by its customers is a kilowatt hour the PUD doesn't have to buy or generate, so the utility benefits too, PUD spokesman Dave Andrew said.
Bonneville Power Administration, the regional power marketer, since 1982 has given grants to local utilities to pay for conservation programs.
But the money for the PUD's five year program --- $10.2 million provided by the Bonneville Power Administration -- is running low, and the PUD isn't eligible to get more until October 2006.
At the end of this September, the PUD will take another look at its balance and may adjust the conservation payments again, Wellcome said.
"We want to have a program through the full five years," he said.
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