ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Governor’s “Excelsior Power” plan is moving forward after getting the green light from state regulators. The program will pay customers $25 every month for a year if you install a Wi-Fi enabled SMART thermostat and allow your utility to adjust it during peak times of demand.
The state has set aside $30 million in tax dollars to offer the bill credits to utility customers who are not already enrolled in similar programs. Another $3 million will be used to educate the public about the incentive.
RG&E and NYSEG already have what they call the “Smart Savings Rewards Thermostat Program.” Nearly 40,000 people locally have signed up, allowing the utilities to remotely adjust their smart thermostats when the power grid is stressed.
“It allows the company to make brief, limited temperature adjustments, this occurs between May 1st and September 30th,” Nicole Williams told News10NBC back in March. Williams is the manager of conservation and load management at RG&E and NYSEG. She says the adjustments typically ranges from 1-4 degrees. The current program offers a gift card to cover the cost of the thermostat and a $20 bill credit at the end of each season.
The new state program will offer a $25 bill credit every month for a year.
“Customers will be allowed to override utility control of the thermostats during events and customers will not be penalized for those actions except for discounting or de-rating a customers’ bill credits, customers are also able to de-enroll from the program without penalty and de-enrollment must be as convenient as enrollment,” explains Matt Brown, who works for the NYS Department of Public Service and recently briefed the NYS Public Service Commission on the program.
The PSC recently approved the basics of the program, saying as energy demand continues to grow, additional grid flexibility will support reliability.
While the new incentive only requires permission for the remote operation of your smart thermostat, they are looking to what’s next too, “in the future as communications and smart home controllers get more technologically advanced and more widespread, managed charging, smart appliances, where you can time things, when they operate or not down to smart outlets, you could have whole smart home hubs that control things,” Brown says.
Again, the new program is only for new customers willing to install a smart thermostat and allow the utility to remotely access it during times of peak demand. If you’re already enrolled and allowing that, you do not qualify for the additional incentive.
State regulators want there to be one streamlined, statewide website and system for customers to sign up for the new program. So, If you’re considering joining the “Excelsior Power” program, you should wait until the end of the year when all that has been set-up and the monthly credits are active. News10NBC will keep you posted when that is available.
New York’s Excelsior Power program to use $30 million in tax dollars to offer smart thermostat bill credits to qualifying utility customers WHEC.com.
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