It's Fun to Save at the YMCA

CHICAGO, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pav YMCA in Berwyn became the 10,000th ComEd business customer to prove that you can save money by saving electricity.  The service organization earned an incentive check of more than $11,000 to help offset the cost of energy efficient improvements to its lighting system that have reduced its annual energy usage by about $13,000 per year.

Since the creation of ComEd's Smart Ideas For Your Business® energy efficiency program in 2008, area businesses are estimated to have saved more than $70 million in annual electricity costs and reduced their energy usage by 880,975,000 kWh.  The result of this clean energy initiative is equivalent to avoiding the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 119,000 cars.

"Smart Ideas provides a variety of information, technical and financial resources to customers to help manage their energy budgets. But it all rests on a simple commitment to deliver value to our customers." said Val Jensen, senior vice president, Customer Operations. "Not only do these programs improve the conditions and comfort of their facilities, they help generate savings that go straight to a company's bottom line."

"We wouldn't have been able to complete this project without the Smart Ideas program," said Jamie Kucera, executive director of the Pav YMCA.  "We're beyond excited by the results.  Simple changes in the lighting yielded big improvements."

Lighting upgrades such as the one undertaken by the YMCA are a popular choice among businesses that participate in the program.  Although essential, lighting is a major electricity expense and can account for 30 to 60 percent of annual electric costs for businesses.

ComEd offers incentives to help business customers replace soon-to-be-obsolete T12 lighting with more efficient lighting. Most T12 lamps will not meet a federal energy-efficiency requirement for fluorescent lamps, scheduled to take effect July 14. To help businesses adjust to these new standards, ComEd encourages its customers to take advantage of our Smart Ideas lighting retrofit incentives to replace their T12 lamps and ballasts.

"We've received tremendous feedback from our members, both independent and national businesses operating in Illinois who have taken advantage of this great opportunity, participating in the Smart Ideas program," says David F. Vite, President & CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA).  "Besides the great environmental benefits, it has positively impacted the bottom line for many businesses in Illinois." 

IRMA represents more than 23,000 stores of all sizes and merchandise lines. Its membership includes the nation's largest chains as well as independent stores in towns across Illinois. 

ComEd launched its Smart Ideas programs in June 2008 to provide customers with easy and accessible energy-efficient ways to manage their electricity usage, save money and help the environment. The programs provide assessment services and incentives to switch to more energy-efficient equipment, from lighting to refrigeration to more complex projects such as industrial improvements.

To date, the program has:

• Supported 10,000 projects that help businesses improve energy efficiency with approximately $63 million in incentives, saving more than 880,975,000 kWh of electricity annually.
• Dispensed nearly $6,300 in incentives, on average, per customer, which covers about 25 percent of the total project cost.
• Provided 465 Smart Ideas Opportunity Assessments to help business customers find energy-saving opportunities in their facilities. These free, on-site assessments resulted in energy-efficiency improvements that are estimated to have yielded nearly $4 million annually in electricity savings for customers.

For more information on ComEd's Smart Ideas programs, Visit comed.com/business-savings/progams-incentives

To learn about other businesses that have benefited from the Smart Ideas program, please visit comed.com/business-savings/resources/Pages/case-studies.aspx

The Pav YMCA can be reached at [email protected] and IRMA can be reached at [email protected].

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider, with approximately 6.6 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

SOURCE ComEd