By law, the EEP program, established in 2008, provides electric ratepayer funding to electric company customers and vendors of energy efficient or load shifting technologies to purchase and deploy those technologies (CGS § 16-243v). According to PURA’s report, nine technologies are eligible for incentives under the EEP program, including:
- gas chillers: natural gas powered devices that provide cooling for area air conditioning applications or for industrial and commercial processes;
- real time energy feedback devices: devices that allow users to reduce their energy consumption by providing them with a real time display of their energy use and other energy-related data; and
- energy saving algorithms: thermostats that can be (a) programmed with algorithms specific to the climate and building occupancy schedules and (b) connected to the internet to gather local weather data.
PURA describes the EEP as a secondary program for emerging technologies and states that its use is limited. To date, the EEP program has spent just over $1 million. (The law limits program expenses to $60 million annually.) These funds are recovered through the systems benefit charge on ratepayer bills. For more on the systems benefit charge, see OLR Report 2015-R-0047.
