by Ashley
Remember a couple months ago when we had an outrageous electric bill ($283 to be exact)? It was literally the highest it’s ever been. I was super worried, especially considering the bill was from a pretty temperate month. If it was that high in the Spring….what’s it going to look like in the blistering dessert heat of summer? *gulp*
If you remember, I took immediate action to try to lower our bill. Things like not running so many loads of laundry (taking effort to fill every load to the max so we weren’t running through half-loads of laundry), not flipping the AC on and off, and being more conscious, in general, about our electricity consumption.
On that original post, a couple of commenters suggested reaching out to my electric company to see if I could get a discount for using electricity during “off times” of the day. I did a little research and….no luck in my area. But I did find an awesome company that I wish we had where I live! I wanted to tell you about it in case anyone lives within the area.
The company is called OhmConnect. Get this – OhmConnect pays YOU for saving energy. Saving money & energy? It’s a win-win!
Here’s how it works: once a week you receive a text message that tells you to turn down your electricity consumption (during a time of high electricity usage in the area). If you are able to save electricity during that time, then OhmConnect will pay you money! It’s not a lot (an average of $100-$300/year), but every little bit helps, right!? And they have a really cool feature that allows you to donate your savings to local area schools if you prefer.
OhmConnect is not an actual utility-provider. It’s a third-party company. So you might be wondering how they make money if you don’t pay them (you pay your utility company), yet somehow they pay you. Skip this part if you aren’t into the logistics, but I think it’s pretty cool. The idea is that energy consumption data is projected based off of past usage. The goal is to have just enough power for the energy that everyone needs. But sometimes the projections are off and there’s not enough energy being generated by the existing power plants. At this point, smaller plants called “peaker plants” get booted on to make up the deficit. Turning on these satellite plants is expensive – it increases the wholesale cost of energy from $40-$1,000/mwh. Also, the peaker plants tend to be less energy-efficient, emitting 2-3 times the C02 emissions as the “normal” power plants (see here for more details).
It’s actually cheaper for utility companies to pay an outside company (like OhmConnect) to prevent the satellite power plants from turning on. It saves them money and using OhmConnect can save consumers money!
Here’s the bad news…OhmConnect is only available in California right now. But, due to recent legislation upholding a decision called “FERC Order 745”, it is likely that similar programs will expand out across the United States in the coming years. I’m just a hop, skip, and a jump from California so fingers crossed it bleeds across the border soon! I’d love to be able to save a few bucks just by saving energy (and helping the environment at the same time! Boom!)
Do you have similar energy-savings programs where you live?
California readers – let me know if you or someone you know uses OhmConnect! I’d love to hear about user experiences and real life savings!
This post was sponsored by OhmConnect. Even though I did receive a small compensation for sharing my thoughts about their company, all opinions are entirely my own. Thanks for the support!
