California offers a variety of financial incentive and rebate programs that can dramatically reduce the cost of your energy conservation efforts. These programs are designed to encourage companies to conserve energy and reduce the peak load on the state’s electrical system.  Administered by utility companies, these incentives fall into three general categories; Energy Conservation, Demand Response and Technical Assistance.

Extensive information on these programs can be found on California’s Flex Your Power web site. General descriptions of the programs, along with links to relevant information, follow:

• Energy Conservation

Projects that save energy obviously reduce a company’s energy costs. In California, however, the state offers additional incentives to encourage energy conservation. These incentives can cut the first cost of certain energy conservation projects in half.  With the reduced first cost, these projects can pay for themselves very quickly and then continue to return dollars to the company’s bottom line for many more years.  A summary of current energy efficiency programs is available here.
 

• Demand Response

If your company can reduce it’s electrical load when the electrical system is near capacity, you may be able to help prevent blackouts, save energy, and also receive special incentive payments and rebates. Even if you don’t think you can reduce your electrical load, a careful analysis of your systems and operations may identify opportunities you haven’t considered.  Click here for a summary of California’s current demand response programs.
 

• Technical Assistance

As you can see from the summaries, California offers quite a number of programs.  Some can be combined while others can not.  In fact, there are so many programs in California that it is often difficult to determine whether projects qualify, which incentives are most appropriate, and how much of an incentive is available.

Fortunately, help is readily available.  Often, your utility company will provide an initial assessment of your opportunities at no cost.  When a more detailed analysis is required, rebates may be available to cover most, if not all, of the services of a professional engineer.

The California Energy Commission maintains a list of engineering firms that they have investigated and found to be qualified to participate as Technical Assistance Partners in the state’s demand response programs. The list is available here.  Casolari & Associates is honored to be included in this list.

Let Casolari & Associates help you find ways to improve your energy efficiency.  In doing so, we will work with you to identify measures that are appropriate to your facility and it’s operation.  Then, we will evaluate all available incentives and rebates, while considering the special needs of your business, to design the most cost effective projects possible. Contact us to get started today.