The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) announced that Mass Save has received an Exemplary Energy Efficiency Program award for its Commercial and Industrial Water Heater Initiative in Massachusetts. The program is provided by the Mass Save Sponsors, which include Berkshire Gas, Blackstone Gas Company, Cape Light Compact, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, Eversource, Liberty Utilities, National Grid and Unitil.

ACEEE's national review evaluates utilities across the country and recognizes exemplary programs for direct customer energy savings, cost effectiveness, market impacts, customer service, innovation, and transferability/replicability and expansion potential.

"On behalf of all the Mass Save sponsors, we are honored to be recognized by ACEEE for our Commercial and Industrial Water Heater Initiative, which makes it easier for our customers to access the energy-saving equipment they need, when they need it," said National Grid SVP and Chief Customer Officer Terry Sobolewski.

"By partnering directly with distributors across Massachusetts, we are also supporting energy efficiency jobs in the commonwealth, now estimated at nearly 85,000," said Eversource SVP and Chief Customer Officer Penni Conner. 

The Commercial and Industrial Water Heater Initiative was recognized for its effectiveness in expanding the market acceptance of high efficiency natural gas equipment. Distributors are able to sell a variety of hot water heaters with the Mass Save discount already factored into the price, instead of offering a post-purchase rebate. This encourages the distributors to keep the equipment in-stock and readily available for commercial customers. 

This exemplary program also includes education and outreach to distributors on the equipment benefits, including energy cost savings and reliability. In the first two and a half years of the initiative, 40 water heater distributors were enrolled, more than 3,000 customers were reached, and more than 3.3 million gross annual therms of natural gas was saved - outperforming similar programs across the United States by more than 2,000 percent.

One business that benefited from the program is Capco Energy Supply, Inc., a wholesale distributor of energy equipment located in Woburn. "This program got us into the game for selling high efficiency water heaters," said Lee Cook, Chief Operation Officer and Owner of Capco.

Mass Save | www.masssave.com

ACEEE | aceee.org