• Focuses on National Grid’s Residential Electricity and Natural Gas Customers in One-to-Four-Family Homes in Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego Counties
• Will Support Clean Energy Jobs and Provide Energy Bill Savings for Homeowners
• Supports Governor Cuomo’s Ambitious Energy Efficiency Target Outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and National Grid today launched the Home Energy Savings Program, a pioneering, pay-for-performance residential energy savings pilot program in Central New York. This initiative will help provide opportunities for contractors to perform work and enable energy efficiency service providers to serve National Grid’s customers with innovative, energy efficiency services and solutions, reducing their overall energy consumption and costs.

Today’s announcement supports Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading goals in the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), including an energy efficiency goal of 185 Trillion BTUs in end-use savings in the building and industrial sector by 2025 as well as an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Doreen M. Harris, Acting President and CEO, NYSERDA said, “The Home Energy Savings Program represents a joint effort between NYSERDA and National Grid, one of the largest utilities in the Northeastern U.S., to offer innovative energy solutions to customers in one- to four- family homes in Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego Counties.”

“We are committed to supporting the Home Energy Savings Program to benefit our customers as part of our joint partnership with NYSERDA to find innovative solutions to lower energy use and increase cost savings,” said Melanie Littlejohn, National Grid Vice President for New York. “This customer-focused program is another step in helping us bring smarter, cleaner and more resilient energy solutions to meet our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Under this pilot, NYSERDA has committed to award up to $6 million in funding, by which energy efficiency service providers will be selected through a competitive process to deliver energy savings to approximately 1,500 National Grid electricity and natural gas customers. The selected service providers will be compensated over three years for achieving energy savings measured using advanced utility meter data.

This joint program will leverage the technical and market strengths of NYSERDA with National Grid’s capabilities to deliver innovative and cost-effective clean energy services to its residential electricity and gas customers. For the energy efficiency providers, the program offers marketing support to help offset administrative costs. For energy delivery companies, like National Grid, the program’s pay-for-performance approach, will potentially mitigate the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.

The new, innovative, performance-based model offered through the Home Energy Savings Program is expected to foster a “whole-house” energy approach which will support the installation of packages of measures such as insulation, air sealing, lighting, smart thermostats, high efficiency hot water heaters, and similar energy savings solutions to a larger portfolio of homes over a number of years. This more comprehensive and longer-term approach is expected to deliver additional energy and bill savings of 10 percent to 30 percent for customers. Energy efficiency pay-for-performance models have begun to emerge nationally with significant potential benefits to customers, energy efficiency service providers and utilities.

Today’s announcement builds on NYSERDA’s ongoing pay-for-performance strategy which includes Business Energy Pro, an innovative collaborative pilot administered by NYSERDA and Consolidated Edison designed to transform the way we invest in energy efficiency. The program will provide a variety of services to help businesses in Westchester County and Staten Island save energy, upgrade their buildings, and improve their bottom-line including lighting, refrigeration, heating ventilation and air conditioning upgrades and controls, and WiFi thermostats.

To submit a proposal to the Home Energy Savings Program solicitation, service providers must register in National Grid’s ARIBA system by November 20, 2020 and may participate in a pre-bid meeting on January 20, 2021.  Bids are due February 22, 2021.  Complete instructions are found in the request for proposals located on NYSERDA’s website at nyserda.ny.gov/hesp.

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

Governor Cuomo's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieving its mandated goal of a zero-emissions electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality.

It builds on New York's unprecedented ramp-up of clean energy including a $3.9 billion investment in 67 large-scale renewable projects across the state, the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector, a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035, and 1,800 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011. Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while meeting a goal to deliver 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities, and advancing progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 BTUs.

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