Puget Sound Energy Develops New Energy Programs for Home and Work

By: Monica Jonen

Your local Puget Sound Energy (PSE) works much like a bank when it comes to saving and expanding energy. One PSE goal is to develop more renewable energy, much like a fruitful savings account that produces interest naturally. Another PSE goal is to help customers save as much energy as they can, which reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. Puget Sound Energy expects to help customers by saving more than 4 million therms of natural gas in 2010 and by conserving, more than $16 million in natural gas cost.

Some of those renewable energies include wind, solar and bio-mass. A great example of the latter is poop. Poop? Yes, poop. According to PSE, there are several farmers in Washington who own what is called a Dairy Digester. This Dairy Digester machine converts the methane gas from poop into electricity that farmers can use to power their farm. That shouldn’t surprise us though there is an Iphone app for poop called Poop the World.

Among the less strange technology is the smart energy saving device, the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). They are pretty common now and you can find them for a pretty good price and CFL’s use 75 percent less energy. If a home owner replaces five regular incandescent light bulbs with five CFL light bulbs, then they will save around 60 dollars per year in energy costs. If you don’t have a buck to save, Puget Sound Energy will give you a rebate for buying the CFL at Costco.

Another interesting relatively new technology that is utilized to help home owners and business owners is the infrared heat censoring technology used in energy assessments. Imagine walking through a room and spotting red bubbles where you are losing money in terms of energy leaks. PSE offers a $350 rebate on these types of assessments to qualified customers through its HomePrint program. Since the government is on board with the national green trend, they are also offering grants and rebates to help pay for any repairs you would have to make to make your house or business energy efficient. To check it out for yourself, go to their website at Puget Sound Energy.com

A local example of this is Archibald Sisters downtown on Capital Way. They participate in the Green Power Program, a voluntary program offered to PSE’s residential and business electric customers, giving participants a way to guarantee the amount of energy they use in matched in the grid with electricity from wind, solar, biomass and other renewable energy sources. The amount paid by customers goes to support the local development of renewable energy, like dairy digesters.

“One of the cool things that we do is refill bottles (with Archibald Sister products) that customers bring in and we give discounts to customers who do that,” Sophie Edwards said, who is an Archibald Sisters Sales Associate. The Archibald Sisters also participate in Green Power Programs, Green Power Rewards, a benefit offered to Thurston County Green Power Program customers, the rewards card offers residential Green Power customers discounts on products and services at local businesses that participate.

“Customers love it that we participate in Green Power too,” Edwards said. Well that looks like the current and latest trendy thing to do to be environment friendly and I charge you to jump on the train heading towards the future.