LIPA energy conservation plan unveiled

The Long Island Power Authority was expected Wednesday to unveil its most ambitious energy conservation program to date, levying a new $3 monthly "assessment" on the average homeowner's bill in an effort to cut demand enough to eliminate the need for another power plant.

Under the program starting in January, LIPA will spend nearly $1 billion over 10 years to encourage homeowners and businesses to adopt energy-efficient measures and buy greener appliances. Ratepayers would get rebates for, among other things, tuning their air conditioning systems or buying energy-sipping clothes washers.

Customers who opt to buy the more efficient products and services will receive rebates and cost reductions, subsidized in part by LIPA, and funded by the monthly assessments set to last 10 years. Those who don't still must pay the new assessment fee but don't get lower bills, LIPA said. LIPA will keep the business and residential programs separate, the utility said.

LIPA has yet to spell out specific rebates for a new range of home appliances but the utility's approach builds on a history of rebate programs over the years.

"Efficiency Long Island," the initiative to be announced today, however, is about triple the size of the program implemented a decade ago, and puts more emphasis on rebates and discounts for efficient products and renovations. It also expands the idea to include those who build, design and renovate homes, encouraging greener practices.

Two-thirds of the program, which has a total budget of $924 million over 10 years, will go to achieving energy savings at businesses, where greater reductions are possible. Average businesses will pay between $10 and $25 a month, LIPA said, depending on usage.

The aim of the plan is to save 500 megawatts - roughly 10 percent of peak demand for power from LIPA customers - even as the utility works to alleviate a projected demand increase. Experts said that goal is extremely ambitious, and comes as LIPA is closely monitoring rising fuel prices in contemplation of a bill increase.

The authority's chief executive, Kevin Law, said he'll make a decision about a possible bill increase tied to fuel costs in the next two months.

Law said the conservation program could help spur the local economy. But fixed-income customers like Syosset retiree Richard White, while applauding the aim of the program, also worried it allows the utility to reach deeper into his pocket. "Once they get their foot in the door, it can be open-ended," he said.

White points out he's already changed all but a pair of floodlights in his house to fluorescents, has purchased the most efficient air conditioners and a water heater, and turns out lights and other items when not in use. "I'm already there," he said of LIPA's ambitions.

Ashok Gupta, an energy expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said consumers could always take more efficient steps, and programs such as LIPA's are targeted primarily for those upgrading appliances.

Michael Deering, LIPA's vice president of environmental affairs, said customers would benefit also from the elimination of costs tied to a new plant, including fuel savings. "The less power we have to produce is an avoided cost that all customers collectively save from," he said.

Energy expert Matthew Cordaro, a professor at Long Island University, cautioned that the cost of the conservation program could far outstrip other energy-efficiency measures such as revamping dirty old plants with clean-burning technology.

Doing both, which LIPA has suggested it might, could cause rate shock, he warned. Boosting the economy and creating "green" collar jobs is good, Cordaro added, but "those jobs are created at ratepayer expense, and you don't have that luxury because of high rates."