Understanding Prescriptive Utility Incentives

Utility Incentives: Prescriptions for Savings

Prescriptive incentives allow a utility to cost-effectively manage a set of standard options that most institutional and commercial facilities often use to reduce energy use. Typical prescriptive incentives from one major electric utility company — paid on the basis of cents per kilowatt hour, cents per therm, or dollars per unit — include:

• Lighting — fixtures and controls
• HVAC — controls, chilled-water systems, air conditioning units and heat pumps
• Data center and information technology equipment — uninterruptible power supplies, server virtualization and power management
• Refrigeration — condensers, compressors, motors, controls and refrigerated cases

Additional categories for prescriptive incentives can include:

• Restaurant equipment — ovens, dishwashers and ice machines
• Miscellaneous — variable-frequency drives, process equipment and air compressors.

— Brian Griffith