Advanced Energy United News

Indianapolis Business Journal (Opinion): Duke Energy should be ambitious in effort to help customers save

Written by JR Tolbert | Nov 19, 2021

Indianapolis Business Journal published JR Tolbert's op-ed on how Duke Energy can save its customers money and up energy efficiency programming. Read snippets below and the full article here.

As the saying goes, the cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use. And proven, affordable and readily available technologies that reduce energy use can save customers money on their monthly bills. So it’s disappointing that Indiana has deprioritized these cost-saving solutions.

The state’s lack of ambition around energy efficiency in homes is costing Hoosiers, who could be saving more than $1 billion annually, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance also found that, by not prioritizing energy efficiency, Indiana is missing out on hundreds of good, local jobs that could have generated an estimated $14 million in income for Hoosiers over the last several years...

Fortunately, Indiana’s largest utility is re-examining how much energy efficiency to support right now... 

A new analysis commissioned by Indiana Advanced Energy Economy found that Duke could roll out significantly more low cost energy-efficiency programs to its customers without raising rates. In fact, the study found Duke Energy could be cost effectively saving twice as much energy across its footprint than it does today...

Energy efficiency is a dependable and affordable way to reduce energy demand and costs for customers. With an electricity road map redesign in the works, this is our moment to aim higher so Hoosiers can spend less.

Read the full article here.