MEDIA RELEASE

Hawaii Energy, the energy efficiency and conservation program, announces it has begun mailing Home Energy Reports to approximately 62,000 residential electric utility customers on Hawaii Island, Lanai, Maui and Molokai.

The reports are a new, innovative tool that will provide randomly selected households with information designed to help them improve the energy efficiency of their homes and save on monthly electricity bills.

The selected households will receive four reports through June 2012.

“This initiative is part of our ongoing effort to encourage energy conservation and efficiency,” said Ray Starling, Hawaii Energy Program Manager. “Customers that receive Home Energy Reports will be empowered to take actions that help them save energy and money.”

In addition to presenting household energy use and trends, each Home Energy Report will rank a household’s energy use with 99 anonymous nearby homes of a similar size and construction type. Households will be ranked from “1” to “100” with “1” using the least amount of energy and “100” using the most amount of energy.

A ranking of “100” will mean that they have a large potential to save money, whereas a ranking of “1” will mean they can help others by sharing what they do to save electricity.

The reports will suggest tips to help households save energy and money. For those who want to save even more money, Hawaii Energy offers an online feature where households can refine their home profiles, explore other energy-saving tips and develop energy savings plans.

This upcoming initiative is an expansion of a pilot that began in the Ewa Plain area on Oahu in May 2011, which will run through April 2012. The nearly 15,000 households participating in the pilot have already saved over 750,000 kWh through October 2011.

This is equal to a savings of $245,625 in their electricity bills (based on the effective residential electricity rate of 32.75 cents per kWh on Oahu for October 2011).

“Evidence shows that one of the key ways to reduce energy use is to provide homes with information about their usage and offer suggestions on what they can do to save,” said Larry Newman with Hawaii Energy. “Based on the success of the Ewa Plain Home Energy Reports pilot and similar projects across the country, we expect the expanded initiative to generate significant savings for those on Hawaii Island, Lanai, Maui and Molokai.”

During the next 12 months, it is estimated the approximately 62,000 households in the expanded initiative could save more than 3.3 million kWh or the equivalent of more than $1.3 million in electricity costs (based on an assumed average of 40 cents per kWh for residents of Hawaii Island, Lanai, Maui and Molokai).

— Find out more:
www.HawaiiEnergy.com