This Earth Day, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation celebrates the many ways in which residents can protect the environment, and reminds customers of its many available programs and initiatives to help them use energy more efficiently.
“Our customers can conserve natural resources by managing their energy use by investigating our many energy efficiency programs. It starts with taking advantage of the energy-saving products and services by registering with Central Hudson’s CenHub online portal,” said Charles A. Freni, President and C.E.O. of Central Hudson. “Thousands of our residential, business and municipal customers have taken advantage of our programs to lower their carbon footprint and energy expenses. Investing in energy efficiency pays for itself, and our programs allow customers to start saving right away,” he said.
Highlights of these highly effective programs can be explored here.
During 2018, energy efficiency measures taken by Central Hudson’s customers saved an annualized 82 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, or, approximately $11.4 million in energy costs. During the year, participation in the utility’s energy efficiency programs increased by nearly 50 percent above that of 2017, and more than twice the average of prior years.
In the last decade, customers enrolled in the utility’s energy efficiency programs cumulatively save nearly $57 million annually, reducing energy demands by enough to power more than 30,000 homes and avoiding more than 675 million pounds greenhouse gas emissions each year, or the equivalent of removing 64,000 cars from the road or planting nearly 290,000 acres of forest. Participating customers have recycled nearly 24,000 refrigerators, freezers and window/wall air conditioners; installed more than 7,300 high efficiency central air conditioning and heat pump systems; purchased more than 1,000 heat pump water heaters; upgraded more than 4,400 natural gas heating and water heating systems; installed 2,600 programmable thermostats; and upgraded lighting at nearly 5,600 municipal and commercial buildings. More than one million high-efficiency LED lightbulbs have also been purchased by or provided to Central Hudson’s customers since 2016, which will save a combined $153 million in energy costs over the lifetime of the lightbulbs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 368,000 tons.
Central Hudson also protects the environment through its operations, for example by reusing and recycling tons of materials through a partnership with Ulster-Greene ARC started more than 30 years ago; reusing and retreading tires for its fleet; and operating three hydroelectric plants to produce local renewable power that supplements the energy needs of its customers.
“In addition to these initiatives, Central Hudson supports the transition to clean energy sources for electric generation, transportation and heating where it makes sense to do so,” said Freni. He said that solar installations in the region are among the highest in New York on a per-capita basis, with nearly 8,700 systems installed by residents and businesses, offsetting more than 8.5 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Central Hudson promotes electric vehicles, which are less costly to operate and reduce emissions by 60 to 85 percent, and is engaging municipalities and fleet owners in determining the feasibility of adopting select electric cars and trucks, including its own utility fleet. Assisting customers in converting heating systems from oil or propane to natural gas, where available, reduces costs and emissions and protects the environment. Incentives for electric heat pumps for cooling and heating are offered, which can also lower costs and emissions.
“These technologies provide both environmental and economic benefits, and support our transition to a cleaner economy,” said Freni.
To support these initiatives, Central Hudson continues to invest in the electric and natural gas systems to modernize the energy delivery infrastructure and enable expanded use of clean resources. “We’re deploying state-of-the-art equipment and systems to improve the efficiency, durability and reliability of the energy delivery system, and to integrate the growth of distributed resources such as solar and, in the future, battery storage,” said Freni. “We are committed to protecting our resources while providing value for our customers, and are excited about the future as we transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy system.”
To learn more about Central Hudson’s energy efficiency programs, tips on saving energy and more, log onto www.SavingsCentral.com, or visit www.CentralHudson.com; for more on the benefits electric vehicles, cost and emissions savings, tax incentives, New York State rebates and more, visit www.CentralHudson.com/ElectricVehicles; and to learn of Central Hudson’s environmental initiatives, go to www.CentralHudson.com and click on “Environment.”
# # #
