Empire District Electric Company Oklahoma demand-side portfolio report

              THE EMPIRE DISTRICT ELECTRIC COMPANY
OKLAHOMA 2010 DEMAND-SIDE PORTFOLIO REPORT
The current demand-side portfolio for The Empire District Electric Company (“Empire”) received final approval from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (“Commission”) on January 8, 2010. This approved portfolio consists of the following programs: Low-Income Weatherization (“Weatherization”), Central Air Conditioner Tune-up and Replacement (“CAC”), Commercial & Industrial Prescriptive (“C&I”), and Interruptible Program (“IR”). The first three programs are considered energy efficiency programs and will be covered in this report. The last program, the Interruptible program, is a demand response program and per OAC 165:35-41-7(b) should be in a separate report. No customers chose to participate in the IR program, so the budget will be presented in this report and there will not be a separate demand response report for the 2010 program year.
Empire serves approximately 4,741 electric customers in portions of Ottawa, Craig, and Delaware counties. This represents about 2.8% of Empire’s electric customers.
The Interruptible program budget was approved at $47,125 annually with an estimated participation level of two customers with a combined curtailment load of 3,000 kWh.
All programs received final approval on January 8, 2010. The CAC and C&I programs were immediately available to customers with marketing campaigns rolling out in May and July, respectively. The contract for the Weatherization program was signed with the Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency in June of 2010.
The following table, EDE-1, provides the budget by category for each of the three energy efficiency programs along with the actual expenditures.
EDE-1 2010Central Air ConditioningC&I PrescriptiveLow-Income WeatherizationTotalsBudgetActualBudgetActualBudgetActualBudgetActualPlanning/DesignMarketing & Delivery6,000$ 2,333$ 8,500$ 3,334$ 17,000$ 5,750$ 31,500$ 11,417$ Incentives/Rebates5,850$ 900$ 19,500$ 4,740$ -$ -$ 25,350$ 5,640$ Evaluation, Measurement, & Verification2,000$ 3,000$ 3,000$ -$ 8,000$ -$ Regulatory-$ 1,675$ Total13,850$ 3,233$ 31,000$ 8,074$ 20,000$ 5,750$ 64,850$ 18,732$
In May of 2010, a press release was issued and a direct mail marketing campaign was utilized. In the campaign, an oversized postcard was sent to all residential and small commercial customers informing them of the Central Air Conditioning rebate program. The postcard provided information about the program and directed customers to Empire’s web site for additional details and the program application. Following this mailing, one residential customer was rebated for the tune-up of two units, and two additional residential customers were rebated for replacing their units with new units with a minimum SEER of 15.
In July, 2010, all commercial and industrial customers received a direct mailing in the form of an oversized postcard informing them of the Commercial & Industrial program and directing them to the Empire web site for details. Following this mailing, one of the larger customers participated in the program, and was featured at a public relations event held at their facility in October, 2010. Various members of the media—print and television—participated in the event and discussed Empire’s energy efficiency programs in various articles and news segments.
The Weatherization program is administered by the Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency (“NEOCAA” or “Agency”). During 2010, NEOCAA weatherized the homes of seven Empire customers using funds provided by Empire. The contract was completed in January 2011 and a second contract was issued in February, 2011.
Comparison of program budgets and participation levels are provided in table EDE-2.
EDE-2
Actual% ofParticipants% of2010BudgetExpendituresBudgetBudgetActualBudgetCentral Air Conditioning13,850$ 3,233$ 23%274 15%C&I Prescriptive31,000$ 8,074$ 26%131 8%Low-Income Weatherization20,000$ 5,750$ 29%107 70%Regulatory1,675$ Totals64,850$ 18,732$ 29%5012 24%
Table EDE-3 compares estimated energy and demand savings from installed measures to budget energy and demand savings.
EDE-3
Budgeted SavingsActual Savings% of Budget2010kWhkWkWhkWkWhkWCentral Air Conditioning28,964 8.3 2,208 1.30 8%16%C&I Prescriptive39,520 13.0 362 3.01 1%23%Low-Income Weatherization17,020 4.4 992 0.97 6%22%RegulatoryTotals85,504 25.7 3,562 5.3 4%21%
The reported estimated savings for the participating measures are based upon the deemed savings prepared by Frontier Associates and Nexant for the Arkansas utilities, as requested by Empire when the proposed portfolio was filed.
As shown in the preceding tables, participation in the energy efficiency programs did not meet expectations. Empire attributes the low participation to two main factors; the first being that this was the first year of the program offering. As with any new product, it takes time for customer awareness to build. Empire believes the second factor impacting low participation is the state of the economy. Even with the federal stimulus programs, people have not been able, or have not been willing, to institute the improvements that would have been made had they not been concerned with economic factors, such as job security and increasing costs of basic items.
Submitted June 1, 2011
The Empire District Electric Co.
Submitted June 1, 2011
The Empire District Electric Co.
Empire is concerned about the low level of participation in its Oklahoma programs and believes that additional marketing will raise awareness of the programs availability. Newspaper ads are planned for the CAC program in addition to a direct mail campaign in 2011. A direct mail campaign is also planned for the C&I program.
These programs are implemented under the supervision of Sherry McCormack, Energy Efficiency Coordinator with Empire. Contact information is provided below.
Sherry McCormack
The Empire District Electric Co.
P.O. Box 127
Joplin, MO 64802
SMcCormack@empiredistrict.com
(417) 625-6519
The CAC program applications are reviewed and approved by Kelly Chenoweth, Senior Energy Services Representative, also with Empire. His contact information is:
Kelly Chenoweth
The Empire District Electric Co.
P.O. Box 127
Joplin, MO 64802
KChenoweth@empiredistrict.com
(417) 625-6177
The C&I program applications are reviewed and approved by the Applied Energy Group. The contact information is below.
Ralph Nigro
Applied Energy Group
5301 Limestone Road, Suite 222
Wilmington, DE 19808-1265
RNigro@appliedenergygroup.com
(302) 504-3071
Empire is committed to energy efficiency and is working to improve participation in its Oklahoma programs. This completes the 2010 Demand-Side Portfolio Report for The Empire District Electric Company.