OKLAHOMA CITY – Public Service Co. of Oklahoma received approval from the state Corporation Commission to continue for another three years its “demand response” programs and its programs that incentivize customers to save energy.
Energy efficiency programs “involve reducing electricity consumption on the customer’s side of the meter,” while demand response programs “involve incentivizing customers to reduce their demand for a specified period of time, generally during peak demand hours,” explained James B. Alexander of the state Attorney General’s Office.
The monthly utility bill of an “average” residential customer using 1,085 kilowatt hours of electricity will include a monthly charge of $3.19 in 2022, $3.20 in 2023, and $3.18 in 2024, PSO reported.
Those monthly amounts will be earmarked for recovery of all demand program costs, lost net revenues and “a shared savings incentive,” PSO said.
The lost revenues “collect the fixed-cost recovery for investment the utility has already made,” said Kathy Champion, energy coordinator in the Corporation Commission’s Public Utility Division. “Utility prices are set based on existing investment,” she noted.
Energy Efficiency programs “save customers money,” Ms. Champion said, “both in the short term through lower fuel cost, using less fuel in total or needing less expensive fuel during peak hours; and in the long term by avoiding the need to make investment in additional plant in the future.”
“This is a renewal to continue offering energy savings rebates and services to customers,” PSO Region Communications Manager Stan Whiteford said. “The new charges are similar, yet lower, than charges that already exist in customers’ bills.”
The three-year total cost of the energy efficiency and demand response programs is calculated at $131 million.
PSO has more than 565,600 customers in 232 cities and towns in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. The utility serves at least 37 communities in southwest Oklahoma, including Lawton, Altus, Duncan, Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Porter Hill, Sterling, Hobart, Apache, Temple and Rush Springs.
The utility’s customers number 486,566 residential, 64,003 commercial, 6,796 industrial, and 8,283 “other.”
PSO OFFERS REBATES, INCENTIVES
PSO, a subsidiary of American Electric Power Co., has energy efficiency and conservation programs for residential and business customers alike, records reflect.
They also include rebates and incentives for the purchase of energy-efficient equipment, “anything from upgrading to energy-efficient air conditioning units in the home, to replacing old motors and pumps in industrial applications,” Whiteford said. “Change-outs to energy-efficient LEDs in schools, warehouses, manufacturing facilities and retail shops are included.”
A free home weatherization program for households who earn less than $50,000/year “is another EE/conservation program,” Whiteford said. “So is our Shine A Light program, where we purchase and distribute LEDs by partnering with food banks for distribution to their clients.”
The company’s Power Hours program is “a thermostat program that provides customers more control of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system and with time-of-day, variable peak pricing and direct load control options,” said PSO executive Jeff E. Brown. “These options also provide the company with peak demand savings,” Brown said.
There also are rebates and incentives for contractors to build more energy-efficient homes. “And our Peak Performers program incentivizes schools and business customers to reduce their electric load on certain hot summer days when demand for electricity is high.”
Programs proposed for 2022-2026 also include a Conservation Voltage Reduction program for residential, commercial and industrial customers.
Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) refers to the installation and maintenance of technology that “optimizes and lowers delivered voltages, creating energy savings for customers,” Brown said. “It uses a centralized intelligent control system to continuously monitor and automatically control substation and line voltage regulating devices to maintain the overall distribution line voltage within a narrower bandwidth than possible without CVR.”
All of the programs that PSO provides offer incentives or rebates that result in energy savings and reduced demand for electricity, “which helps us hold down the costs associated with having to buy or build additional power generation,” Whiteford said.
“The goals of PSO’s Demand Portfolio are to minimize the long-term cost of utility service; avoid or delay the need for new generation, transmission and distribution investment; and encourage and enable utility customers to make the most efficient use of energy and to reduce wasteful use of energy,” Brown said in testimony pre-filed with the Corporation Commission.
The Wi-Fi-enabled connected devices market continues to grow as homes and businesses become “smarter,” Brown said. “While this electrification offers challenges with load management and load growth for utilities, connectivity of these devices offers opportunities for utilities to partner with customers in managing more devices and minimize possible adverse impacts to the utility system.”
The commissioners approved a limited waiver of the Corporation Commission rule that prohibits fuel switching, to accommodate a limited annual number of residential and small business air source heat pumps (70 units), new construction heat pump water heaters (10 units) and multifamily complex mini-split air source heat pumps (50 units). This is intended to “address interest expressed by customers to remove natural gas-fired equipment in homes and buildings in certain circumstances,” said Brown, Energy Efficiency and Consumer Programs Manager for PSO.
Also, high-volume electricity users can opt-out of some or all of the energy conservation programs offered by PSO. That’s because some large power users “have predeveloped conservation programs,” PSO attorney Joann Worthington explained.
WEATHERIZATION PROGRAM TOUTED
With the exception of their home weatherization program, PSO plans to consolidate their existing programs into one Residential Energy Services plan, Alexander said. Consolidation will enable PSO to “expand the multifamily programs to manufactured homes and expand the list of qualified thermostat rebates,” Alexander testified.
The Oklahoma Sustainability Network commended PSO on its portfolio of energy conservation measures. However, “We want the home weatherization budget doubled,” OSN attorney Deborah K. Thompson told the Corporation Commission.
PSO’s home weatherization budget will average $3.44 million per year – less than half the amount devoted to the program in 2021, Thompson said.
“From frozen pipes and expensive plumbing repairs to many years ahead of higher monthly bills for extraordinary fuel cost recovery, PSO’s limited-income customers are living with an energy burden that will now be even higher as a result of the 2021 winter storm event [last February],” OSN wrote.
“PSO proposes to reach only 1,763 participants per year with their well-established and proven home weatherization program, but they have identified 229,196 eligible PSO customers” – 47% of the company’s 486,566 residential customers.
“Clearly there is room – and need – to expand the home weatherization program, and fortunately it is also a cost-effective opportunity,” OSN asserted.