Record Utility Bonus Rebate Programs For Lighting

Brightswitch is reporting that there are a record number of utility bonus incentives for commercial lighting efficiency programs.  The value of the bonus will vary depending on the utility. Sometimes, it’s an extra 10% or 20%; other times, it can more than double the original rebate. This year, a record number of bonus programs are available for commercial lighting upgrades.

Image courtesy of BriteSwitch

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, utility commercial lighting rebate programs began offering bonus rebates to incentivize more lighting upgrades to achieve their energy saving goals during a time of reduced construction and retrofit activity. The number of bonus programs has continued to grow despite the easing of the pandemic.

Bonus programs typically start to appear in the Fall as utilities struggle to meet their participation and savings targets, but this year, they appeared as early as March. This increase in bonus dollars reflects the ongoing difficulty in finding new energy efficiency projects. Most of the low-hanging fruit projects, such as T12 and metal halide, have already been upgraded. However, there are still many opportunities where facilities have more efficient technologies like T8 and T5HO but haven’t upgraded to LED yet. These customers need increased incentives to help offset the more modest payback.

Bonus programs can widely vary in how they work, but they usually fall into these four categories:

1. Bonus on specific products
2. Bonus on certain customer categories
3. Across-the-line bonus
4. Trade ally bonus

Read the full Briteswitch article here.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and Senior Business Development Consultant at Capacity Consulting, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has been co-chair of the ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

See Full Bio