Press Release

Local Utilities Announce Cutting-Edge Conservation Program
Conserve and Save Home Energy Report to begin in March

Austin and Owatonna, Minn. – March 10, 2009 – Austin Utilities (AU) and Owatonna Public Utilities (OPU) will be among the first in the nation to utilize a groundbreaking new program that helps homeowners save energy and money by better understanding their energy use.

The utilities are working with Virginia-based energy-monitoring service Positive Energy to deliver the Conserve and Save Home Energy Report to homeowners. This report compares homeowners’ energy use to that of their neighbors in the community so they better understand how efficiently they are using energy.

“The average customer has no idea whether he or she uses more or less energy than the next guy,” said Kelly Lady, AU Energy Services Consultant. “The Conserve and Save Home Energy Report gives customers an idea of how their energy use compares to similar households in the community and whether they can benefit from taking measures to conserve energy.”

The program is funded in part by a state grant awarded to AU and OPU earlier this year. The goal of the program is to drive down energy consumption for AU and OPU customers by 2 to 5 percent over the initial two-year pilot period and help the municipal utilities meet state-mandated gas and electric savings goals.

The first reports are scheduled to appear in mailboxes in March. In these reports, AU and OPU will ascertain each customer’s most similar neighbors using a variety of criteria including type of house, square footage, period of energy use and proximity, and then plot the efficiency on easy-to-read graphs. Showing customers how well they use energy compared to how the nearest similar neighbors use theirs gives new insight into energy conservation and it just might drum up a little friendly competition.

According to Positive Energy, this neighbor-to-neighbor comparison has proven to be the single most effective piece of information to motivate homeowners to think about how they use energy. “We want homeowners to take simple steps such as routinely shutting off lights, powering down a home computer or completely filling a dishwasher before it is run,” said Roger Warehime, OPU manager of energy management and external relations. “We hope this program gets people to set goals and make progress toward changing the way they think about energy use. It doesn’t cost a dime to change the way you use energy, but it can provide significant cost savings in the long run.”

In June, AU and OPU applied for and received a grant from the Minnesota Office of Energy Security to offset some of the cost of the program. It is done in part to comply with the Next Generation Energy Act of 2007, which makes it mandatory for utilities in Minnesota to show a 1.5 percent drop in energy consumption. AU and OPU have teamed up with Positive Energy to gather and organize the information used on the bimonthly reports.

In addition to a comparison to the nearest similar neighbors, homeowners will receive information about their own past energy use in the form of a progress tracker. This on-going measurement reinforces the positive aspect of energy savings by applauding customers who reduce energy consumption. It also assists customers who are not progressing by suggesting tips and additional energy saving programs such as home energy audits.

The reports will be mailed separately from customers’ actual energy bills, arriving typically 10 days to two weeks after the monthly bill. Single-family homeowners with at least three months of energy history will receive a report every other month.

For more information on the Conserve and Save Home Energy Report, homeowners in Austin should visit www.austinutilities.com or contact the office at 433-8886.

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GRAPHIC CUTLINE: This is an example of a chart similar to one that will appear in a Conserve and Save Home Energy Report. This example shows the steps a homeowner might have made during a 12-month period to reduce energy use and the results of those efforts.