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rebates, along with energy audits. Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P) has
a program to encourage the use of cool storage technology. It provides
building owners with a $300 cash incentive for each kilowatt reduction in
peak demand. There is also a cool storage billing rate, which defines the
on-peak demand as noon to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday throughout the year.
Many buildings have increased in value and marketability as a result of
these cool storage programs. In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Texas Utilities
had more than 135 cool storage systems in operation.
Kraft General Foods and Boston Edison have an energy-efficiency
partnership that reduced the cost of ice cream manufacturing dramati-
cally. This project decreased the cost of producing ice cream by one third.
The ice cream manufacturer was able to upgrade most of its electrical en-
ergy-consuming capital equipment and obtain substantial rebates for the
energy saved. The rebates returned more than 85% of a $3 million invest-
ment. This included refrigeration and defrosting equipment, lighting in-
stallation and monitoring equipment.
Besides rebates there are low- or no-interest equipment loans, financ-
ing, leasing and installation assistance and assured payback programs.
Wisconsin Electric Power Company offers rebates of up to 50% of the proj-
ect cost and loans with multiple rates and terms for 3 to 7 years. These
programs are available to building owners and managers who install en-
ergy-efficient HVAC systems, window glazing, high-efficiency motors or
building automation systems.
Commonwealth Edison Company in Chicago offers its Least Cost
Planning load reduction program. In this program, businesses agree to
curtail or reduce their electricity consumption to prescribed limits when
the utility requests it. They are compensated with a special electricity rate
that is performance-based. The worst performance during any curtail-
ment period becomes the base for electricity charges.
According to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), DSM programs grew
from 134 in 1977 to nearly 1,300 by 1992. These DSM programs deferred
more than 21,000 megawatts (MWs) in 1992. In 1997, about 1,000 electric
utilities had DSM programs. A little more than half of these are classified
as large and the rest are classified as small utilities. Large utilities are those
that produce more than 120,000 megawatt hours. This group of larger util-
ities account for about 90% of the total retail sales of electricity in the Unit-
ed States.
Utilities are also supporting the adoption and implementation of
stricter building codes and equipment efficiency standards. The increas-
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