Escalon Chamber of Commerce

New PG&E Program 

Save Money and Help the Environment through Electricity Demand Response Programs

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) offers customers a number of demand response programs to help prevent a potential electric supply shortfall. Many PG&E business customers have already discovered how easy it is to benefit from these programs while also helping the environment.

Demand Response (DR) programs give participants a financial incentive to respond to energy shortfall emergencies by reducing their electric loads. These emergencies typically occur in hot summer months, when air conditioning pushes energy demand perilously close to energy supply.

DR programs provide a way to respond to power emergencies and prevent power interruptions. The programs involve voluntary load reductions as well as mandatory, contracted load reductions during a declared curtailment event.

Participants receive incentives in the form of financial payments, reduced off-peak rates, or both. Some programs include rate protection programs that help ensure that participants avoid an abrupt increase in energy costs while participating in demand response.

In addition to financial benefits, demand response customers help the environment by allowing PG&E to forgo building and operating new power plants. Participating companies also enjoy recognition for being responsible corporate citizens.

To sign up, you must be a PG&E customer on an eligible rate and your facility must have an interval meter. If your load was sustained at a level of at least 200 KW over a certain past period of time, your facility is generally eligible for a DR program and PG&E will provide an interval meter at no cost to you.

You may be able to combine (aggregate) Service Agreement accounts to reach the minimum level and to participate in DR programs. Also, as a demand response customer, you receive InterAct, our online demand response system that provides load reporting and curtailment event communications.

To learn more about various DR programs at PG&E or to enroll, visit www.pge.com, or call 1-800-468-4743.

ClimateSmart™ provides a voluntary option for Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers to reduce their personal impact on climate change. When you enroll in the program, PG&E will calculate the amount needed to make the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your personal or business energy use “neutral” and will add this amount to your monthly energy bill. 100% of your ClimateSmart payment will go to directly funding new greenhouse gas emission reduction projects in California.  Climate Smart program makes customers' electric and natural gas use 'climate neutral.'  Customers can choose which Service Agreements and which commodities (electric, natural gas, or both) to enroll in the Climate Smart program.  The cost of Climate Smart will be $0.00254/kwh and $0.06628/therm for natural gas. 

PG&E plans to invest Climate Smart funds in a range of innovative projects, such as livestock manure management projects that capture methane gas from dairy farms and conserving and restoring California's native forests.  PG&E selected programs that met the stringent verification protocols set by both the California Climate Action Registry and PG&E.  Your Climate Smart dollars will be placed into two programs that will help California.  These two programs are the Lompico Forest Project and the Garcia River Forest Project. The Lompico Forest Project based in the Santa Cruz Mountains will reduce green house gas emissions by permanently preserving 202 acres of trees that were slated for harvest and that continue to absorb and trap carbon. The Garcia River Forest Project based in the coastal mountain range of southwestern Mendocino County, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by protecting trees that would otherwise have been harvested and that absorb and trap carbon.  The project will sequester 40,000 tons of carbon annually for ht next five years.  More information on these two projects can be found at this link: http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/environment/whatyoucando/climatesmart/climatesmartaboutprojects/index.shtml

Signing up for Climate Smart is very simple, you can fill out this simple form online:  http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/environment/whatyoucando/climatesmart/climatesmartsignup/

The average residential customer pays about an average of $5.00 a month in the Climate Smart program.  There is no processing fee and no cancellation fee, you can cancel at anytime.  If you are a business customer and would like to know how much Climate Smart will cost you, please call Nav Dosanjh at 209-576-6542.