Saving Energy and Money in Kentucky
Encouraging their customers to use electricity more efficiently is an important tool for every electric utility in maintaining a reliable and affordable electricity supply. For the utility customers, becoming more efficient is a great way to get more value from their electricity dollar. And encouraging homes and businesses to use energy more efficiently helps to reduce the utility industry’s impact on the environment as well.
In Kentucky, LG&E and KU offer their customers a wide variety of innovative ways to become more energy efficient. And their customers are responding. In fact, nearly one-in-three of all LG&E and KU customers have participated in at least one of their utilities’ energy efficiency programs.
One of LG&E and KU’s programs, the “Demand Conservation” program, reduces customer demand on the electricity system when it reaches peak levels, such as a hot summer afternoon when everyone’s air conditioning system is running. Lowering peak demand helps the utilities to defer the need for new power plants and transmission lines, which in turn helps to keep electricity costs down for everyone.
Customers participating in the Demand Conservation program get a credit on their monthly electric bill in return for allowing LG&E and KU to cycle their large, electricity consuming appliances—central air conditioner, water heater or pool pump—on-and-off for a few minutes each half hour during the peak demand periods. In the summer of 2011, LG&E and KU’s Demand Conservation Program had about 140,000 appliance control devices installed.
LG&E and KU’s home construction program, ENERGY STAR® New Homes Program, earned the utilities a 2011 Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—one of 44 organizations nationwide to be so recognized. The energy efficient home building program helps to educate builders, customers, and industry leaders about how to build a more energy-efficient home.
And in working with the state through their “Children’s Energy Education” LG&E and KU helped Kentucky to be recently recognized as the distinguished 2011 “state of the year” by the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project. LG&E and KU’s Children’s Energy Education Program provided educational resources to 1,900 teachers in more than 600 schools, reaching more than 80,000 students.
All together, LG&E and KU estimate that without their efficiency programs, electricity demand in their combined service areas would be growing at an annual rate of 0.5 percent more than what it is now, about 1.5 to 2 percent annually. The success of these and their other energy efficiency programs have led LG&E and KU to file for new and expanded energy efficiency programs with the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
LG&E and KU Energy LLC, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a diversified energy services company that is a member of the PPL (NYSE: PPL) family of companies. Jointly the two utilities serve 943,000 electricity customers and 321,000 natural gas customers. More information about the LG&E and KU’s energy efficiency offerings, including the proposed new and expanded programs, can be found at http://www.lge-ku.com/ee.
Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company Named EPA 2011 Partner of the Year
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU) a 2011 Partner of the Year for their efforts to help educate builders, customers and industry leaders about how to build a more energy-efficient home.
LG&E and KU created their home construction program, ENERGY STAR New Homes Program, in 2008. The companies, part of the PPL Corporation, are regulated utilities that serve a combined total of 1.2 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States.
The LG&E and KU home construction program requires builders to construct homes that are at least 23 percent more energy efficient than Kentucky home construction building codes. The houses also must pass inspections throughout each step of construction, and obtain third-party qualification by home energy raters certified by the Residential Energy Services Network. The Network’s Home Energy Rating System, HERS, rates a home to ensure that its construction and combined features provide a more energy-efficient, comfortable home that exceeds standard construction. The LG&E and KU home construction program also connects interested home buyers with the resources to help them either find a builder with homes currently under construction or to begin the process of building their own customized ENERGY STAR-qualified home.
Since February 2009, more than 1,400 ENERGY STAR-qualified homes have been built within the LG&E and KU programs. Besides giving their buyers more comfort and more control over their energy use, these houses have achieved estimated energy savings that are the equivalent of planting 1,134 acres of trees and reducing 8.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
For more information, please visit www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.