Consumer Outreach
Energy Efficiency Loans on Tap
Electric co-op members in South Carolina will be able to get help making their homes more energy efficient under a program announced Oct. 25.
The South Carolina statewide and Central Electric Power Co-op are partnering with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute on an energy efficiency initiative. (Graphic By: The Electric Cooperatives of S.C.)
The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina and Central Electric Power Cooperative will design and implement the program as a partnership with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Some of the funding is coming from a $225,000 grant that the institute received from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, established by the tobacco heiress who died in 1993.
“We’re working on other sources, and we hope to be able to start offering a pilot program in early 2011,” said Lindsey Smith, director of public and member relations at the statewide.
Consumer-members receiving the low-interest micro-loans will repay them using a portion of what they save each month on energy costs. The program is similar to the proposed federal Rural Star program, which passed the House of Representatives Sept. 16 and is now in the Senate. Rural Star would enable co-ops or a statewide group of co-ops to obtain zero-interest loans from the Rural Utilities Service. Co-ops would then be able to make small, low-interest loans to members for efficiency upgrades.
Mike Couick, CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, said the statewide supports both Rural Star and the new partnership for the same reason: to decrease the need for new generation.
“Looking at all our options, efficiency is simply the smartest and cheapest energy source we could find,” Couick said.
At Columbia-based Central Electric Power Co-op, CEO Ron Calcaterra agreed. He hopes the new program will weatherize and upgrade 225,000 homes over the next decade. “By doing that,” Calcaterra said, “we could save all co-op members $4 billion, or the cost of half of a nuclear plant.”