By providing valuable incentives and rebates to customers, energy efficiency programs have proven to be an effective way for utilities and federal/state/local governments to reduce electric demand. Funding for these programs has grown rapidly over the years and is now at an all time high.

 

A recent report from the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) shows that the budgets for energy efficiency electric programs were $6.8 billion in 2011. That's a 26% increase over the previous year's budgets. Of that money, $2.6 billion is earmarked specifically for commercial and industrial projects.

 

The CEE report also breaks down the budgets by geographic region. Four states have far larger budgets than the rest of the country, representing 50% (or $3.4 billion) of the total energy efficiency electric budgets. Predictably those states are California, New York, Florida and Massachusetts. Other states are increasing their budgets as well; states like North Dakota, West Virginia, Arkansas and Virginia which previously had little, if any, funding have increased their budgets significantly for 2011.

 

What does this funding mean to you? If you are considering upgrading to more efficient products in your facilities, now is the time to do it. Plenty of rebates and incentives are available, but you must be cautious in choosing the products that are eligible and following the program's procedures exactly so you don't miss out on any money.

 

Click here to learn how BriteSwitch can help you get the most money.