Bright Energy Solutions (Moorhead Public Service/Missouri River Energy Services) is offering an Excel spreadsheet to help you calculate cost savings and payback potential of lighting retrofits. It can be found under the Lighting New Construction and Lighting Retrofit section of their Energy Calculators For Your Home or Business webpage.
Bright Energy Solutions (Missouri River Energy Services/Moorhead Public Service) has added custom incentives for qualified indoor LED lighting installed in commercial and industrial facilities. “In order to be considered for a custom incentive, all LED products must be either Energy Star® qualified or approved by the Design Lights (TM) Consortium. Check out the latest Design Lights Qualified Products List and Energy Star Products. If you are considering the use of indoor LED lighting in commercial and industrial facilities please contact your local utility prior to the ordering of materials. Preapproval is required for all items to be considered in the Custom Incentive Program.”
In addition to these custom rebates Bright Energy offers specific incentives for Exit lights, reach in refrigerated case lighting, Energy Star qualified recessed downlights, and Energy Star qualified recessed downlight retrofit kits. These specific incentives are listed the Lighting Retrofit and Lighting New Construction application forms.
Bright Energy Solutions has updated their rebate program for the 2011 calendar year. “All application forms have been revised and will be available at www.brightenergysolutions.com on January 2, 2011.” This applies to customers of Moorhead Public Service along with customers of Missouri River Energy Services and their utility partners. From their press release…
Summary of 2011 Changes…
New Construction Lighting Program for Businesses
Residential HVAC and Energy Star Appliances
Food Service
Compressed Air Systems
Ray and I attended the introduction of Moorhead Public Service’s energy efficiency incentive program. The program is called Bright Energy Solutions: “a unique portfolio of energy efficient cash incentive programs that will help you reduce your electric energy costs and operate more efficiently.”
The program is run through participating member utilities of the Missouri River Energy Services of which MPS is a member. Missouri River is a collection of municipal utilities operating in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. If you are a customer of one of these utilities this program is for you.
The meeting was well attended by the three partners of Bright Energy Solutions: Moorhead Public Service (MPS), Missouri River Energy Services (MRES), and Franklin Energy (Program administion.)
Ray, Chuck, and I arrived early to meet with the MPS staff. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres were served. Bill Schwandt, General Manager of Moorhead Public Service welcomed the guests and introduced his staff and those of MRES and Franklin.
Kurt Hauser, is Missouri River’s Energy Services Technical Coordinator. Kurt explained the constraints Missouri River Energy Service operates under. The Bright Energy Solutions program will help them satisfy Minnesota’s legal requirements and delay building new generating plants.
After the presentation, Ray and I had a one on one meeting with Kurt Hauser about the program, help we might need, and services we could provide including facility auditing. For a new program it is pretty complete. Looking at the application forms, the program should be as easy to deal with as Xcel Energy’s programs.
All three organizations reiterated they would be happy to help in anyway they can. Dennis Esienbraun (MPS, Energy Services Manager) asked to be contacted early in any project particularly if the project involved any custom incentives.
The plan is broke down into these sections…
Lighting
The program offers a nice cash rebate to replace T12 Fluorescents with T8 or T5 lamps and electronic ballasts.
There is a larger rebate if you install new super efficient electronic ballasts such as the Sylvania PROStart. There is also a cash rebate for using 28 Watt T8 lamps if you already have 32 watt T8 lamps. The rebate pays for the cost difference so I highly recommend contacting us about these lamps.
There is large rebate for replacing high bay HID fixtures. This is an easy retrofit; with the rebate it pays for itself quickly.
There are also cash rebates for Compact Fluorescents, Ceramic Metal Halide Floods, LED lamps, Induction Fluorescent Lamps, and Lighting Control systems. These are all technologies we can help you will.
HVAC
(Heat, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) They quickly covered these cash incentives.
The Cooling, Chiller incentive covers: package systems, split systems, PTEC units, Heat pumps, Ground Source Heat Pumps (with an optional incentive for Desuperheaters), Window AC, Wall AC, Setback Thermostats, Chilled Water Resets, and Window Film. Obviously there are stringent requirements for these incentives but if you’re replacing equipment or adding new equipment these incentives can help pay for better equipment.
There are incentives for Motors, Pumps and VFDs. In our experience these three items usually have very good paybacks and the incentives are just icing on the cake.
Food Services
Bright Energy Solutions offer cash incentives for Energy Star rated: Solid Door Refrigerators, Solid Door Freezers, Ice Machines, Steam Cooker, Holding Cabinets, Fryers, Griddles and Ovens. So if you have a commercial kitchen and are thinking of upgrading or adding commercial electric equipment these incentives can be a big help.
Residential
Many of the incentives listed above are also available for residential customers of MPS and MRES. This includes: Furnaces, Central Air Conditioners, Ground Source Heat Pumps, Air to Air Heat Pumps, and Compact Fluorescent Lamps.
Custom Incentive
Almost anything not listed above that cuts your electric demand in the summer months can be file under the Custom Incentive. Contact MPS or ourselves for assistance in calculating the potential incentive.
Effective Concepts has all the forms and expertise to help you maximize your energy savings, cost savings, and incentive, so if you’re a customer of Moorhead Public Service or another municipality that is a partner of Missouri River Energy Services we can help you.