PSE&G Launches $190M Customer Energy Efficiency Program
Public Service Electric and Gas this week unveiled a new, $190 million program to bring energy efficiency to its business, municipal and residential customers.
The company's "Energy Efficiency Economic Stimulus Program" is an expansion of a similar project launched in November 2008, offering energy audits and efficiency tips throughout PSE&G's service area.
With the project approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the funding is expected to create 688 green jobs in the utility and contractor jobs in the next two years. PSE&G and its contractors have announced a pledge to hire at least 100 graduates of New Jersey's Green Job Training Program, which is overseen by the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Almost 40 percent of those green jobs are expected to be created in the hospital industry, a primary focus of the expanded program. PSE&G says that 28 hospitals have expressed an interest in the program, and that around a dozen are already undergoing efficiency audits.
Also this week, PSE&G published its 2009 Corporate Sustainability report, which highlights the company's progress on achieving green goals.
The results are something of a mixed bag: the company is making progress on reducing its overall emissions and its carbon intensity, butrenewables still make up just .5 percent of its total capacity: Only around 80 MW of capacity out of a total 16,101 MW of installed capacity last year. The amount of CO2 generated per megawatt-hour has declined to just over 750 pounds per Mwh, down from a high of nearly 900 pounds per Mwh in 2004.
But PSE&G significantly surpassed its Climate Leaders goal of reducing its direct emissions by 18 percent over a 2000 baseline; as of 2008, the company had achieved a 31 percent reduction in direct emissions.
Goals announced in this year's sustainability report include the implementation of the two energy efficiency projects, as well as a $773 million proposed solar investment, to generate 120 MW of solar power by putting panels on 200,000 utility poles and on the rooftops of schools, municipal buildings and other facilities. PSE&G also aims to achieve an energy conservation target of 15 percent in all its facilities by 2014.
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