Rebates totaling $56,967 from Grand Marais Public Utilities enabled the hospital and care center to upgrade to energy-saving LED lighting as part of major expansion and renovation.
“LED lighting was on the block to get chopped,” said Chris Lange, maintenance director of North Shore Health. “We were able to add it back in because of the expected amount of rebates.”
Rebates, including nearly $46,000 for lighting fixtures, lamps and sensors and $11,000 for variable-speed drives for air-handling fans and pumps, reduced more than half of the $112,000 cost for LED lighting throughout the building. The high-efficiency equipment will save an estimated $40,000 a year on electric bills.
“The benefits are just astronomical in energy savings and labor savings,” Lange said. “I’m a big fan of LED. They are the biggest rebates on energy efficiency measures,” Schoenherr says. “This is another way to build on that kind of joint action.”
When a member utility attracts, expands or retains a qualifying business customer, it can apply for the board approved Economic Development Credit. SMMPA will reward the utility with five years of discounted energy charges on the related load — from 40 percent the first year to 2.5 percent the fifth year.
To qualify, new or incremental load must be at least 250 kilowatts or more than the member utility’s fifth-largest customer, based on total energy consumption, and not transfer from another SMMPA member utility.
Credit for retained load applies to existing retail customers in economic distress who, without the credit, would significantly reduce energy consumption or shut down local facilities. The customer’s local load must total at least 1,000 kilowatts or rank among the member’s five largest customers. The customer also must have received at least $50,000 in local, county, state or federal financial assistance within the last 24 months.
SMMPA member utilities have the flexibility to design their own retail economic development programs, which must be approved by their local governing body. Under the member’s rate structure, at least 50 percent of the wholesale credit for new or incremental load and 100 percent of a credit for retained load must flow through to the participating customer.
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