Saving Money by Saving Energy
Atlantic City Electric is equipped to support commercial and industrial customers with energy efficiency programs.
When it comes to energy costs, businesses of all sizes face a range of challenges. Supply prices, aging equipment, escalating repair needs, limited annual capital, and constrained operating and maintenance budgets can make effective energy management complex and unpredictable.
Atlantic City Electric is prepared to help with all of that—and more—with its slate of energy efficiency programs.
“We offer 12 programs and pathways that serve our commercial and industrial customers,” Frank Nicosia, Senior Energy Efficiency Program Manager at Atlantic City Electric, says.
These programs were developed in response to the New Jersey Clean Energy Act signed into law in May 2018, which mandated utility-driven energy efficiency programs implemented in 2021 to lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while saving money for customers.
“The bottom line is, this is all about helping our customers with affordability to save energy, which equates to saving money while enjoying equipment upgrades that many businesses need,” Nicosia says.
Not only do the programs help customers save money directly, but they reduce energy demand, meaning less stress on the energy grid. This translates to better grid reliability due to decreased load on the system.
Atlantic City Electric’s energy efficiency programs break down into three categories: equipment upgrades, equipment optimization, and learning opportunities. Customers can take advantage of one or a combination of these programs. Popular equipment includes lighting, HVAC commercial kitchen equipment, and refrigeration.
Equipment Upgrades
These programs are designed to help businesses of all sizes, from small storefronts to large commercial or industrial properties, identify and implement energy-saving upgrades. The upgrades can be standardized or customized to help meet customer’s operational needs.
St. John Lutheran Church in Ocean City completed a project and is reaping the rewards. The project included replacing boilers that were nearly 50 years old with a new boiler and six heat pump systems, and replacing incandescent lights with LEDs, which resulted in a 22% reduction in electric usage and 20% reduction in natural gas usage.
The total cost of $239,000 included $188,784—or 79%—in incentives paid, with St. John Lutheran Church financing the remaining $57,000 balance at zero interest through Atlantic City Electric’s financing program.
“St. John’s is a great example of not only offsetting the cost but also addressing customer infrastructure needs and reducing their energy bill while also improving the environment of their church,” Nicosia says.
Not ready to upgrade? No problem.
Atlantic City Electric’s optimization programs focus on helping businesses use energy more efficiently.
Beachfront hotel Armada By-the-Sea in Wildwood Crest focused on optimization when working with Atlantic City Electric to upgrade its rooms’ HVAC units.
The tune-ups included air filter changing, checking and cleaning the condensate drain line, cleaning both indoor and outdoor coils and straightening fins, cleaning indoor and outdoor fan blades, and checking and recharging refrigerant.
The $8,375 project cost was fully paid with incentives, resulting in a zero net cost for the hotel. Further, the estimated total energy savings from this project are $5,315 per year.
Learning opportunities
Atlantic City Electric partners with the Pennsylvania College of Technology to offer learning opportunities for customers to better understand energy efficiency best practices and how to apply these to their business.
The Building Operator Certification pathway provides up to $1,000 per student to attend a virtual eight-week class to help maintenance teams learn how to more efficiently run their building.
“It covers basic facility and energy 101,” Nicosia explains. “Things like HVAC system operations, measuring and benchmarking energy performance, low-cost opportunities.”
Stockton University has taken advantage of the Building Operator Certificate pathway with participation from their Director of Energy and Sustainability and several facilities staff that offset tuition costs for the university by $4,000 and has saved approximately 198,851 kWh annually.
The utility also offers an online tool called Business Energy Manager at no additional cost. “It gives organizations near real-time insights on how they’re using energy and how they can reduce their usage,” Nicosia says.
The benefits
“By addressing new equipment needs and improving operations and energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption, it makes a significant impact on the life cycle cost of that building,” Nicosia adds.
For costs not fully covered by incentives, flexible zero percent financing options are available, making these projects more attainable for businesses of all sizes.
Between July 2021 and March of this year, Atlantic City Electric has awarded approximately $63.9 million in incentives to customers, to offset the costs of energy efficiency upgrades, optimization, and education efforts that have resulted in savings of more than 108 million kilowatthours.
|
$24M
|
|
Annual Customer Savings
|
|
Annual Energy Savings is enough to power 13,500 homes annually!
|
With roughly 1,780 customers that have already participated, Atlantic City Electric is eager to expand its energy efficiency programs and expand opportunities to help make energy more affordable for even more customers in the community.
Atlantic City Electric
Serving South Jersey
(800) 642-3780
