Local Initiatives
Illinois Efficiency Program Honored
The Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives has been honored for an initiative that helped co-ops perform home energy audits and deliver energy efficiency rebates to homeowners.
John Scott, energy advisor at Jo Carroll Energy, reviews the results of a HomE energy audit with a co-op consumer-member (Photo By: Jo Carroll Energy)
Under the HomE program, more than two dozen distribution co-ops performed nearly 3,500 audits and delivered more than 3,000 rebates to Illinois homeowners.
HomE—pronounced Home E—received the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s 2012 Inspiring Efficiency Impact Award on Jan. 12, during the alliance’s Midwest Energy Solutions Conference in Chicago.
The alliance, which promotes energy efficiency and manages programs in the 10-state Midwest region, presents the award annually in recognition of a significant contribution to energy efficiency market transformation.
“Through HomE, we were able to encourage cooperative members to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, and also make them more aware of their everyday energy use,” said John Freitag, the statewide’s vice president of operations, who administered the program.
HomE ran from May 2010 to September 2011. More than 90 percent of participating homeowners followed through with at least some of the audits’ recommended improvements.
This allowed AIEC to use $2.5 million in funding from the 2009 stimulus act, which in turn spurred more than $25 million in energy efficiency investments in 15 months.
The program covered 30 percent of the costs of insulation and weatherization, with rebates of up to $1,500 for heating and cooling system improvements.
While HomE has concluded, Freitag reported that the co-op association has several new programs now getting under way. They include RenewE, which promotes development of renewable energy systems on farms and in rural areas; and FarmE, which offers energy audits for farms and rural small businesses.
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Tags: Efficiency and Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Local Initiatives, Weatherization