Award category

Innovation

Year released

2024

Energy savings from certain building and industrial electrification opportunities were enabled by CEJA (Illinois Energy Law) to be counted toward annual energy savings goals for the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program starting in 2022. Throughout 2022 and 2023, ComEd embarked on an ambitious effort to enhance existing measures and create new customer offerings in support of customer end use electrification that could also contribute meaningful, cost-effective savings toward statutory goals. The effort has included research, new industry partnerships, cross-function collaboration, and the launch of exciting, new or renovated customer offerings. Early signals suggest these offerings are successfully bringing in new, cost-effective energy savings to ComEd’s energy efficiency portfolio while also stimulating regional market adoption of key electrification technologies.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2023

The Multi-Family Energy Savings (MFES) offering provides energy saving services to multi-family residences throughout the Chicagoland and northern Illinois area. It is a comprehensive offering serving all multi-family building types, including public housing, income eligible and market rate. 

MFES provides customers with energy savings opportunities in the form of direct installation of products, assessments, rebate offering, contractor management and customer education about energy efficiency and additional utility offerings. These offerings are funded by ComEd, Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas and Nicor Gas customers in compliance with Illinois law. MFES is implemented by Franklin Energy to ensure efficiency and consistency across all areas including assessments, direct installations, metrics and reporting, call center support, marketing and outreach, Energy Efficiency Service Provider’s diversity planning and process improvement.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2023

The DTE Equity Insights and Inclusion Study models an effective path to identify, target, engage and learn from customers who are among the hardest to reach with the goal of ensuring the utility’s low-income energy efficiency program reaches customers with the greatest needs. The approach prioritizes communities and households with the highest energy burdens, greatest vulnerability indicators and/or similar indicators to determine households with the largest opportunity to benefit from energy efficiency programs. 

This effort uses a unique set of equity metrics (rooted in household-level data analysis), innovative community engagement strategy, collaboration with stakeholders and application of behavioral science insights to develop a Community Focused pilot that integrates customers’ lived experiences to overcome longstanding program challenges and deliver energy efficiency measures to priority customers. 

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2022

In implementing Ameren’s multifamily income-eligible Demand-Side Management program, ICAST delivered whole-building, deep energy retrofits to income-eligible multifamily properties. During these retrofits, residents could remain in-unit or temporarily relocate until the work was complete. Income-eligible tenants’ resources are limited, often precluding them from spending the money required to relocate. During COVID-19, ICAST recognized the need to adjust the program to minimize exposure to the virus without simply halting work. To that end, ICAST designed and implemented a relocation incentive program for IE tenants. This program provided equitable access to clean energy solutions while prioritizing tenants’ health and safety. ICAST educated tenants on the benefits of energy efficiency retrofits and provided financial support to allow them to temporarily relocate to eligible properties.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2021

ComEd’s Fix-It-Now Compressed Air offering is an innovative approach to immediately fix compressed air leaks as they are identified, which is a common need for almost all industrial customers. The offering provides a fixed price incentive for the Energy Efficiency Service Provider (Service Provider) to survey compressed air systems and identify as many leaks as possible, as well as fix identified leaks all at the same time. This allows Service Providers to actively engage with industrial customers to provide a quick and no-cost compressed air leak repair solution on energy-wasting compressed air systems. This approach has led to a very cost-effective offering for ComEd for any compressed air systems greater than 25 HP. In addition, it is a great way to introduce a customer to future energy efficiency opportunities since it is quick win to a significant, immediate pain point.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2021

In 2019 the City of Minneapolis partnered with the Center for Energy Environment (CEE) to pass a time-of-listing energy disclosure policy for singlefamily homes. With its passage, Minneapolis became the fourth city nationally with a similar policy to inform and motivate homeowners to make energy improvements. Implemented in January 2020, every Minneapolis home listed for sale (roughly 5,500 annually) is now required to have an energy disclosure report and score, bringing visibility and value to home energy performance. To further bolster the policy, the City partnered with CenterPoint Energy and CEE to provide follow-up communications and an energy advisor service for new homeowners. With disclosure as the foundation, the partners are now conducting a pilot program focused on spurring investments in home energy upgrades. 

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2020

Partnering with Power TakeOff to deliver its Virtual Commissioning™ (VCx™) Program, ComEd has successfully leveraged its Grid Modernization investment to implement a cost-effective, scalable, and measurable energy efficiency solution for SMB and public institution accounts. These hard-to-reach customer segments represent more than 90% of all non-residential accounts for ComEd.

Using newly available interval meter data, the program remotely identifies and crafts personalized, site-specific energy efficiency recommendations. Each commissioning opportunity is individually reviewed with the targeted prospect, who is encouraged and taught how to adjust the operations of their existing equipment to save energy. ComEd provides the VCx™ service at no charge to the customer as the program incentive, and there are no enrollment forms, on-site visits, or financial commitments, making participation as easy as possible. The VCx™ program is also entirely evaluated using M&V 2.0 statistical methodology.

The VCx™ Program has grown substantially from its 2 GWh savings achievement in 2017 to 8 GWh in 2018 and an estimated 15 GWh for 2019. On average, participants have realized 13.8% annualized savings by implementing no to low-cost energy efficiency opportunities. In addition, more than 80% of local SMB participants have never previously participated in a ComEd energy efficiency offering. The short participation cycle, approximately one month, has also enabled ComEd to increase VCx™ Program saving targets mid-year to help accommodate portfolio needs.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2020

After major flooding from extensive rainfall, Focus on Energy formed the Flood Relief Offering for affected rural small businesses and residents. Additionally, in response to collapsed structures and barn roofs from heavy snow buildup, the Farm Disaster Bonus was created. These disaster relief initiatives helped rural residents and small businesses recover from recent natural disasters by replacing impaired equipment and reconstructing damaged buildings with newer, longer-lasting, energy-efficient measures that reduce overall energy costs.

To do this, the offerings provided a bonus incentive alongside existing energy efficiency incentives when participants rebuilt or upgraded through a Focus on Energy program. Participants also received guidance from an Energy Advisor to identify and incorporate energy efficiency measures in their projects for maximum savings.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2019

The Focus on Energy Strategic Energy Management (SEM) Initiative was inspired in 2014 by conversations with a trusted program customer and green-lighted in 2015 by a forward-thinking program administrator. Today, 14 of the 27 participants are on track for or have already achieved ISO 50001 status. Along the way, we refined regression modeling techniques and presentation formats, adjusted our customer engagement and coaching practices, challenged program reporting and evaluation assumptions, learned a great deal about expectations and limitations of SEM as a DSM program offering, and generated excellent customer satisfaction among Wisconsin’s largest energy users. With the SEM Initiative, we’ve laid the foundation for SEM as an ongoing Focus on Energy offering for the next wave of customers ready and committed to improving their energy performance by applying the principles and practices of continuous improvement.

Award category

Innovation

Year released

2018

The On Demand Savings (ODS) Program was an 18-month pilot program that worked with commercial and industrial customers to better understand and manage on-peak summertime demand. The goal of the program was to see if customers could reduce on-peak demand through in-house programmatic and manual interventions when assisted by program experts, software tools (including a real-time energy dashboard), and financial incentives.

Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) generates and distributes electricity to 149,000 customers in Dane County and purchases and distributes natural gas to 154,000 customers in seven south-central and western Wisconsin counties. Focus on Energy is Wisconsin utilities’ statewide energy efficiency and renewable resource program funded by the state’s investor-owned energy utilities and participating municipal and electric cooperative utilities.