Questions for Satya Rhodes-Conway, COWS

Below are some questions that people posed during the May 19 conference call that we couldn't get to on the call:

Missouri's major investor-owned utilities have shown a very shallow commitment to energy efficiency work. How do people incentivize this for them? We are looking at introducing legislation next session that would incentivize energy efficiency work so we can get KCP&L and AmerenUE on board.  - Brian DeSmet, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, St. Louis

In Portland and the other cities where utility companies are involved in the billing, what impact does the ownership of the utility make. Are these mostly municipally owned? Have any been with investor owned utilities? - Rev. Dr. Warren Clark, Faiths United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE), Tampa, FL

Aside from the standard finacing options (i.e. loans, leasing, etc), there are some new alternatives such as "Pay As You Save (PAYS)". Aside from PAYS, what other innovative financing options are available to help homeowners cover the upfront capital expenses of energy efficiency retrofits? - Laura Mogilner, San Francisco, CA

Brian -

I'm not surprised to hear that you're having trouble getting utilities to commit to energy efficiency work in Missouri - this is a pattern around the country. There are several strategies people have tried, including decoupling and efficiency standards. There 's also the public benefits fund model, which seems to be more successful if it's run by an entity outside the utilities (see NYSERDA, EfficiencyVermont, Focus on Energy (WI)). If you're thinking specifically about city-scale retrofits, one possibility is to get your Public Service Commission or your legislature to require utilities to allow on-bill repayment. Another is to try and replicate what Portland is doing - they have conceptual agreement from three utilies to do on-bill repayment. You might ask Derek about that. Finally, if you're not already in touch with Joe Thomas from MO Apollo, you should be. Drop me a line and I'll send his contact info.

Best,

Satya

satya at cows.org

Warren -

If you're trying to do something directly with the utility (as opposed to working with a municipal bill or property tax model) the "attitude" of the utility matters a great deal. In that sense, a municipal utility may be easier to work with. However, the three utilities Portland is working with are all investor-owned, as far as I know. There are some nice examples of progressive munis around the country - Austin Energy in Texas and Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida come to mind.

Best,

Satya

Laura -

I think the financing options are fairly nicely laid out in our new report (linked here: http://www.greenforall.org/what-we-do/building-a-movement/community-of-practice). Briefly, we talk about three repayment mechanisms: on the property tax, on a municipal bill, and on a utility bill. All three require up-front capital from somewhere (might be bonding, ARRA funds, public benefits dollars, etc.). All three assume a revolving loan fund, keep the payment with the property, and in each case the idea is to align the amount of the loan payment with the amount saved via efficiency. There are, of course, other ways to do it - grants, rebates, personal loans, etc - but we think that these mechanisms have the potential to get efficiency work done on the scale we need.

Best,

Satya