Hundreds of Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) residential and commercial customers will soon be able to take advantage of generous rebates to help pay for comprehensive energy efficiency retrofits thanks to a federal grant. Using stimulus funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), the Neighborhood Performance program provides rebates to single-family and multifamily residential customers and small and large commercial customers in the downtown and midtown areas of Sacramento and the Rosemont area in Sacramento County. Those areas were chosen based on customer profile and peak energy usage. SMUD received about $2.8 million in the grant, which was awarded to Los Angeles County last year. The program will run through June 2013.

For residential customers, the Neighborhood Performance program is designed to take into account the home as a system and uses an innovative whole-house approach. Based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, it makes a house or apartment building more energy stingy. The program aims to retrofit about 130 single-family homes and 50 multifamily units with energy-saving upgrades that may include duct sealing, new insulation and new heating and air conditioning systems. Efficiency improvements averaging 20 percent are well within reach for participating customers. More than 80 qualifying low-income households are also eligible in the neighborhoods for free weatherization and retrofit services up to $3,500.

A new commercial program called Complete Energy Solutions will be made available to small to mid-sized stores, restaurants, offices and other businesses that draw no more than 300 kilowatts of electricity. These businesses will be eligible for comprehensive retrofits to boost the energy efficiency of lighting, refrigeration and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Rebates are expected to cover well over half of retrofit costs. A separate program will target large commercial operations for whole-building energy efficiency retrofits.

SMUD will offer its established energy efficiency loans to customers that require financing in the range of $3,000 to $10,000. To help customers who require less financing, SMUD is working to develop a financing option that will allow customers to spread out the project cost over one to two years, with monthly payments appearing on their SMUD bill. It’s important to note that most customers who go this route would be cash-flow positive from the outset, with monthly energy savings more than covering their installment payments.
For more information, visit smud.org or call 1-888-742-SMUD.

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Disclosure: Becky Repka is employed by SMUD in Corporate Communications.