2005
Interstate Power and Light Co. (IP&L) developed and implemented an agricultural Demand Side Management (DSM) program to help agricultural customers use energy more efficiently and improve their productivity and profitability. By offering and promoting farm energy audits, prescriptive rebates, custom rebates and a participating dealer program, the agriculture sector has more incentive to use energy efficient technologies. In the nine months after the program started in April 2004, 87 participants became involved with the project, achieving 1.6 million kWh in energy savings. As a result of establishing IP&L as a leader in agriculture energy efficiency among regional agribusiness trade groups, they have been asked to present information to industry groups including the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation, Iowa Agriculture Innovation Center, and the John Pesek Colloquium for Energy and Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The program, successful in its beginning stages, continues to grow and plans to increase its goals for the coming years.