Video Transcript

Welcome to 2021! By the end of last year, you probably set some pretty aggressive goals for this year’s budget. Now, you’re a couple weeks into the new year, and you’re wondering, “How are we possibly going to hit all of these goals that we set?”

In today’s Two-Minute Tuesday, we’re going to explore three opportunities in energy that will help you hit those goals for 2021.

Opportunity #1: Review your current agreements.

Opportunity number one is probably the easiest: review your current electricity and natural gas agreements. You’d be surprised how many people think their agreements expire much later than they actually do.

Say, for example, your agreement expires in June. You have six months’ worth of opportunities to evaluate all of your options. You can set up a market alert or market watch to hit a certain price point that you’re looking for.

When the market hits that price point, you’ll be alerted so you can take action. Your new rate will take effect after your agreement expires in June. Let’s say it was a seven percent savings. You now have seven percent extra dollars in your budget that you didn’t otherwise plan for.

So, taking this simple step of reviewing your agreements can have a significant impact on your budget.

Opportunity #2: Generate revenue.

How big of an impact would it be to your budget if you were to create another revenue stream that you didn’t plan for?

Demand response is a program you can enroll in where it asks you to curtail energy usage during the time of a grid emergency. You get quarterly payments based on how much energy you can curtail, which is determined by a one-hour test event every summer.

If there is a grid emergency, you can earn extra energy payments based on how much energy you curtail during that emergency. Luckily, in our PJM territory, there has not been a major grid emergency where anyone has been asked to curtail energy in over ten years.

If generating a new revenue stream would be important to your budget, you’ll want to act now because the deadline to enroll is coming up in the spring.

Opportunity #3: Energy efficiency.

Say you have dollars allocated in your budget this year for an efficiency project, but you’re not sure which one to tackle first. Consider doing an energy audit.

An energy audit will help you identify areas of need, utility incentives currently available, and the ROI for that project. Whichever project you tackle will significantly lower your energy usage not only for this year and this year’s budget, but also for many years to come.

Seize these opportunities and make the most of your 2021 budget.

Energy can have a positive impact on your 2021 budget. By reviewing your energy agreements and their end dates, generating a new source of revenue, and reviewing efficiency projects, not only will this impact your budget for 2021 but also in the years to come.

Thank you for watching! And if you liked what you saw, please like, comment, or share below.