ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence Award Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence Award winners continue to exhibit exceptional leadership year after year in the ENERGY STAR program while remaining dedicated to environmental protection through superior energy efficiency. These winners have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by setting and achieving aggressive goals, and employing innovative energy efficiency approaches. These awards recognize ongoing leadership across the ENERGY STAR program, including energy-efficient products, services, new homes, and buildings in the commercial, industrial, and public sectors: • Austin Energy, Texas • Focus on Energy, Wisconsin • New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Office of Clean Energy, New Jersey • New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), New York Austin Energy Austin, TX With more than 330,000 residential customers, Austin Energy is the City of Austin's municipal electric utility, delivering power to a service territory of more than 420 square miles. In 2013, Austin Energy used U. S Department of Energy Better Building Neighborhood Program grant dollars and funds from its successful loan program to create a revolving loan fund of $3.5 million to support future program operations. Austin Energy is receiving ENERGY STAR® Sustained Excellence recognition for continuing to enhance and expand its Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) program. Key accomplishments include: • Completing more than 2,450 projects; 34 percent of HPwES participants completed three or more energy saving measures. • Realizing more than $10 million dollars in energy efficiency upgrade investments and savings of 3.96 MW. • Using Better Building Neighborhood Program grant funds to buy down the interest on market rate loans, from 3.99 percent to 1.99 percent, allowing qualified participants to choose rebates and loan options to significantly lower out-of-pocket costs for energy efficiency improvements and lower interest rates on qualifying loans. • Lowering the barrier for whole-house improvements for more than 1,000 low income homeowners by offering $29 AC unit checkups on all HVAC service calls. • Offering more than 70 contractor training sessions, with specialized training offered on two occasions for more than 100 contractors and building professionals. Focus on Energy Madison, Wisconsin Focus on Energy (FOE) is Wisconsin utilities' statewide program for energy efficiency and renewable energy, serving millions of customers and thousands of trade allies. Focus on Energy is receiving ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence recognition for its comprehensive approach to delivering the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES), 1 ------- commercial sector energy efficiency, and ENERGY STAR certified products and programs. Key 2013 accomplishments include: • Shifting its HPwES program design to a contractor-based model, enabling increased project completion rates, energy savings per project, and building shell measures per home, while decreasing project duration from assessment to project submission. • Completing more than 2,550 projects through its HPwES program and delivering more than $4.5 million in residential incentives. • Supporting a robust contractor network by creating a Trade Ally Advisory Group, offering cooperative advertising dollars, access to mentoring and ongoing sales and technical training, reporting and quality assurance tools and resources, and recognition opportunities. In 2013, FOE had seven HPwES Century Club award-winning contractors and one U.S. DOE Housing Innovation Award winner. • Promoting a robust selection of ENERGY STAR certified residential and commercial products across its portfolio of residential, commercial, and industrial programs, and exceeding program goals by significant margins. FOE's Residential Lighting Program alone incentivized over 7 million ENERGY STAR certified lamps through nearly 1,100 store locations across the state, delivering approximately 314 million kWh savings (annual) in 2013 and exceeding 105 percent of the program's goal for the year. • Leveraging the proven performance and consumer recognition of the ENERGY STAR brand across multiple commercial and industrial incentive programs. FOE offered trainings modeled after the ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management and actively assisted customers with the benchmarking of nearly 240 facilities. New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Trenton, NJ New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) promotes energy efficiency and clean energy by providing financial incentives and informational services to New Jersey residents, business owners, and local governments through its statewide Clean Energy Program. NJBPU is receiving ENERGY STAR® Sustained Excellence recognition for its delivery of the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) program. Key 2013 accomplishments include: • Completing 4,807 projects, with 91 percent of projects achieving 25 percent or more in estimated total energy savings. In 2013, 13 participating contractors earned the Century Club Award and produced 66 percent of the program's projects. • Achieving 176,055 total MMBTus savings across all fuel types—gas, electric, oil and propane. • Reimbursing contractors over $200,000 through a co-operative advertising model whereby contractors received a 50-percent reimbursement up to $75,000 for various types of pre-approved advertisements that meet program guidelines. • Working with the New Jersey Credit Union League (NJCUL) to support the local economy and develop a cuGreenLoan for homeowners participating in HPwES by offering zero-percent interest financing on loans up to $10,000. • Supporting participating contractor grassroots marketing efforts that engage entire neighborhoods in the home performance process and establishes friendly competition among the contractor base. 2 ------- New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Albany, New York As a public benefit corporation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) administers programs that are designed to help New York meet its energy goals: reduce energy consumption, promote the use of renewable energy sources, and protect the environment. NYSERDA is receiving ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence recognition for its Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (HPwES) program. NYSERDA also undertakes activities to promote ENERGY STAR certified products and ENERGY STAR certified homes. Key 2013 accomplishments include: • Completing more than 5,860 HPwES projects and 900 quality assurance field inspections, and exceeding a 33 percent assessment-to-completion project conversion rate. • Launching a Web-based home performance XML (HPXML) compliant portal to improve application processing and program administration from project initiation to completion. • Building capacity for home performance services by working with 72 statewide partners to train more than 15,000 participants in energy efficiency technologies and practices as part of NYSERDA's energy efficiency workforce development initiatives. • Offering low-interest financing to homeowners to help them finance their energy improvement work. Financing includes more than 3,200 Smart Energy Loans valued at $29.8 million with 326 Smart Energy Loans approved pending project completion and over 1,200 residential On-Bill Recovery (OBR) loans valued at $13.7 million with 241 OBR Loans approved pending project completion. • Saving New York State over 49 million kWh and $5.9 million in energy costs through the promotion of ENERGY STAR products. NYSERDA promoted ENERGY STAR certified lighting, appliances, heating and cooling equipment, and consumer electronics through partnerships with retailers and manufacturers. It also encouraged local municipalities to replace older, inefficient equipment with ENERGY STAR certified models. • Incentivizing more than 2,200 ENERGY STAR Certified Homes in 2013, for a total of 24,395 homes built since NYSERDA joined the program. 3 ------- |