New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approves energy efficiency programme proposed by South Jersey Gas

2 July 2009

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has agreed to support the five part energy efficiency programme proposed by South Jersey Gas, a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries.

‘Our investment in these new energy efficiency programmes will allow our customers to install high efficiency equipment at a very low cost and obtain significant savings in their energy costs over time,’ said Edward J Graham, the president and CEO of South Jersey Gas.

In the first part of the programme, South Jersey Industries will offer $900 rebates for high efficiency heating equipment if the customer agrees to an in-home energy assessment, after which they will have the option of selecting up to $1,000 worth of free air sealing. The second part offers customers up to $20,000 of interest free financing to assist in obtaining whole-house energy efficiency. With rebates from the New Jersey Clean Energy Programme and South Jersey Gas, qualified customers will be obligated to pay back 25 per cent of the loan over ten years while customers who are not financially eligible will be required to pay back 50 per cent of the loan, according to a statement.

The other three features of the programme focus on lowering energy consumption by commercial and industrial customers. The first of these features implements financial incentives for companies to install a combined heat and power (cogeneration) system or an efficient distributed generation power plant to generate electricity, which will reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by lowering dependence on the electric grid system. The second feature offers no-interest financing of up to $25,000 for companies whose electric demand is not greater than 200KW per month, allowing them install energy efficient gas reducing technologies. The final facet of the programme provides upfront financing of up to $100,000 for larger commercial and industrial customers, such as housing complexes, schools, and medical facilities.

The $17m plan allows South Jersey Gas to advocate for energy efficiency without adversely impacting income. Graham added,’The programmes will provide a long-term benefit to our region through the creation of jobs.’

South Jersey Industries is an energy services holding company for utility and non-regulated businesses.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: energy efficiency, smart grid, transmission, utility

This story was published on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm and is filed under North America, companies, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approves energy efficiency programme proposed by South Jersey Gas”

1. miggs says:

   4 July 2009 at 9:18 pm

   My favorite part of this programme is the combined heat and power (CHP). I’m associated with Recycled Energy Development, a company that focuses on such things, and the potential here is absolutely mind-boggling. Indeed, EPA and DOE estimates suggest that between CHP and waste energy recovery (two related processes) our nation could slash our greenhouse gas emission by 20%. That’s as much as if we took every passenger vehicle off the road. Meanwhile, costs would fall due to increased efficiency. We should be doing much more of this.

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