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One Family’s Relief Speaks for ManySample

The Low Income Solar Access Pilot in Oregon

Client: Energy Trust of Oregon
Location: Oregon

Challenge/Business Need

The Sevilla family of Junction City, Oregon, were excited to move into their own home, but then faced a tough reality — a winter in their modest dwelling revealed that their budget couldn’t cover heating costs.

Many other families similarly struggle with spending a large portion of their income on electricity. Water heating typically accounts for 20-30 percent of household energy consumption. As a result, Energy Trust of Oregon sought to:

  • Deliver energy-efficient solar water heating technology to low-income customers
  • Combine solar with weatherization measures for maximum benefit

CSG’s ROLE

Energy Trust of Oregon (Energy Trust) asked CSG to craft and implement a pilot program to effectively collaborate with agencies to help low-income customers served by all four of its’ utility providers.

This included building partnerships with Housing and Community Services Agency (HACSA) of Lane County and eight other agencies, marketing, and delivering the program.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS:

  • Lower energy costs via efficient home water heating
  • Combine weatherization with water heating to reduce costs and help mitigate climate change
  • Provide leadership opportunities for low-income homeowners

RESULTS:

  • Brought residential efficiency to 85 low-income customers in first 6 months
  • Five times more installations in 2009 than previous year
  • Leveraged almost a dollar-for-dollar match of local and federal dollars for additional weatherization services

Strategy & goals

CSG developed a plan for Energy Trust that included:

  • Providing technical and logistical support and resources for qualified community action agencies to facilitate solar water heating system installations statewide
  • Contact Center with bilingual staff (English/Spanish) responsive to customer needs
  • Enabling use of Oregon federal weatherization allocations for solar hot water installations

Each customer received recommendations for ways to conserve energy and information on other relevant Energy Trust programs enabling them to:

  • Minimized energy costs for home water heating
  • Enhanced home comfort and livability
  • Make renewable energy accessible for low-income ratepayers
  • Enhanced capacity to provide renewable energy technology to all residents
  • Reduce the carbon footprint for Oregon residences

Impact

In addition to the solar installations, the pilot brought weatherization measures, such as attic, floor, wall and HVAC duct insulation, replacement windows, air sealing, and programmable thermostats, to low-income customers. Results were impressive; including per-household estimated annual savings of:

  • 2,700 kilowatt hours of electricity
  • $250-$300
  • 1.5 tons of CO2

Best of all, the Sevilla family and many others are able to remain comfortably in their own home. David and Antonia-Pelayo Sevilla and their two children now have opportunities to be leaders in energy efficiency. The initiative served 17 households in 2008, and is on track to serve an additional 20 in 2009.

CSG Contacts

Joe Berney, Pilot Consultant
Paul Berkowitz, Senior Vice President, Pacific Northwest

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