Partnering with customers to offer affordable conservation and energy efficiency programs is a key element of achieving our Net Zero goals.
Energy Efficiency
CenterPoint Energy provides our customers with greater choice and control over their energy consumption. We are encouraging innovative products and services that give customers greater insights into how they use energy and promoting the installation of energy efficiency measures.
2021 Investments in Energy Efficiency Incentives: $69,685,274
20+ Electric Energy Efficiency Programs and Services for Business and Residential Customers
Our energy efficiency programs benefit and incentivize customers across all rate classes, including commercial, residential and low-income sites. The programs target builders, developers, cities, commercial and industrial facilities, homeowners, renters and schools.
Addressing School Energy Costs
Our Schools Conserving Resources (SCORE) Program provides financial incentives, technical assistance, engineering analysis, performance benchmarking for qualified projects to schools, universities, municipalities, faith-based organizations, non-profits, county and select state agencies. Eligible participants can receive free technical assistance, including energy-use benchmarks, an energy master plan to help manage energy costs and communications support to promote energy-savings accomplishments.
Through our 2021 SCORE program, CenterPoint Energy worked with the Goose Creek Independent School District in the Houston area to incentivize a districtwide LED lighting retrofit installed at their administration building, maintenance facility and 16 schools. The project yielded 932.71 kilowatts (kW) and 3,042,005 kWh in demand and energy savings. In addition, the project reduced 2,151 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent of eliminating 465 passenger vehicles and 242,493 gallons of gasoline as calculated using https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator.
Modernizing Healthcare Facilities
Our Healthcare Energy Efficiency Program is offered at no cost and provides technical support and cash incentives to commercial healthcare facilities including hospitals, clinics, assisted living and nursing care, medical laboratories and medical office buildings. Eligible facilities may receive free technical assistance, including energy savings assessments and calculations, as well as benchmarking.
HCA Houston Healthcare completed LED retrofit projects at 10 different hospitals in the greater Houston area that yielded a total of approximately 150 kW and 9,150,000 kWh in demand and energy savings. HCA Women’s Hospital of Texas completed construction of a new medical office building that will yield approximately 71 kW and 342,815 kWh. The 10 HCA lighting retrofit projects and the new Women’s Hospital building received an incentive of approximately $700,000.
CenterPoint Energy awarded the Humble Independent School District $188,000 in incentives for participating in our 2021 Commercial Load Management Program, which is available to non-residential Houston Electric distribution customers and aims to reduce summer peak demands to establish cost savings for participants. This voluntary program supports the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Texas power grid during peak periods in summer months.
Promoting High-Efficiency Homes
CenterPoint Energy’s High-Efficiency Homes promotes the construction and certification of high-efficiency homes that achieve the ENERGY STAR label, as well as other high-performance homes. This voluntary program provides financial incentives and other assistance to homebuilders who commit to construct energy-efficient homes in our electric service territory.
Since joining the program in 2001, we have:
- Incentivized the construction of more than 3,600 ENERGY STAR-certified homes, for a total exceeding 112,000 homes
- Saved more than 420,000 megawatt hours of energy
Conservation Improvement Program
Rebates from our Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) encourage residential and business natural gas customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi and Ohio to choose energy efficient equipment and our energy-saving programs.
Piloting End-Use Carbon Capture Technology
In Minnesota, we are testing end-use carbon capture technology to help our commercial customers increase efficiency, lower energy costs and reduce the environmental impact of their energy use. We are piloting this technology for potential future CIP rebates. Pilot participants, including schools, hotels, assisted living and nursing homes, warehouses, multifamily housing and a water treatment facility, receive equipment and installation at no cost and can choose to keep the equipment after the pilot. Learn more
CleanO2 Carbon Capture Technology Customer Benefits:
- $600 to $1,000 per year in energy savings
- $2,000 to $2,500 per year in profit sharing
- Free preventative maintenance
Supporting our communities while helping our customers save money and maximize efficiency, both now and in the future
Helping Communities Rebuild
ReCenterPoint Energy launched a program to help Minneapolis-area businesses and property owners recovering and rebuilding from property damage that occurred during the civil unrest in 2020. The Rebuild program offers our customers triple the standard rebate amount for the purchase and installation of qualifying natural gas equipment, such as high-efficiency heating systems, water heaters and food service equipment. For customers who need extra help identifying energy efficiency opportunities, we are also offering no-cost energy analysis and advisory services.
Delivering Energy Efficiency to Our Communities
- The City of Houston’s Resilient Now framework is a roadmap of established goals, including grid resiliency and modernization, economic development, a complete communities initiative and an EV infrastructure plan. CenterPoint Energy is developing the City’s first Energy Master Plan and a coordinated infrastructure plan focused on resiliency across all Houston communities. The City and CenterPoint Energy are developing solutions to enhance weatherization through energy efficiency programs for many vulnerable communities, including mobile backup generation that can be installed across Houston and deployed in case of a prolonged outage.
- CenterPoint Energy launched a program to help Minneapolis-area businesses and property owners recovering and rebuilding from property damage that occurred during the civil unrest in 2020-2021. The Rebuild program offers our customers triple the standard rebate amount for the purchase and installation of qualifying natural gas equipment, such as high-efficiency heating systems, water heaters and food service equipment.
- The CenterPoint Energy Foundation provided a $50,000 grant to Rebuilding Together Dayton for the Seasonal Safe @ Home-Heat the Town initiative. Heat the Town is a partnership with local HVAC technicians and plumbers who perform furnace checks and tune-ups to ensure elderly homeowners’ furnaces are clean and safe, thus allowing homeowners to remain warm in the winter months.
ENERGY STAR honored CenterPoint Energy’s long-term dedication to energy efficiency and a greener future for the 18th consecutive year. The 2022 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year-Sustained Excellence Award recognizes our High-Efficiency Homes program that offers incentives to residential home builders in our Houston electric service area for constructing above-code homes that bring energy savings and comfort to the homeowners. In 2021, this program alone reduced nearly 37,000,000 of kilowatt hours (kWh).