When business is good, you keep doing what works. When business is really good, well, it might pose a few new challenges. Growth comes with growing pains, and here at your local electric cooperative we know there’s a lot for you to consider when it comes time to look at new construction, including energy efficiency.

What we don’t want is for those growing pains to slow you down. That’s why we offer our business new construction program, which provides energy efficiency rebates, incentives, and expert advice. To help explain how it works, we talked to Mary Miller, an energy engineer right here at Power Moves.

POWER MOVES: Let’s start by defining what projects, exactly, are included by the term “business new construction.”

MARY MILLER: It covers a few scenarios, including a brand-new building at a site, an addition to an existing building, or a complete gutting or rehab of a building, such as a warehouse that gets converted into apartments.

Remodeling doesn’t really qualify for this program—changing out lights or moving a couple of walls wouldn’t be included, for instance. That said, if you are remodeling, we do have a retrofit program as well.

How does the incentive program work?

The first thing you should do—the very first thing—is to talk to your local electric cooperative, and they’ll put you in touch with me. My job is to help you maximize the incentives you qualify for, so ideally we’ll start talking before you have plans or anything in place. That way we can develop a plan from the ground up that gets you the most return.

The new construction incentives themselves are based on efficiency and state energy codes. We can work with lighting, HVAC systems, even the building shell itself. By working closely with the co-op member, we can make sure we take into account their needs, what they can afford, and ultimately what solution will produce the best results.

And there are two kinds of rebates, correct? Custom and prescriptive?

Right. With a prescriptive rebate, you’re following an existing list of rebates and we give you money for it. In new construction, we have prescriptive measures for lighting, HVAC, air compressors, and so on.

A custom rebate could apply to pretty much anything that uses electricity that we can show savings for. For instance, I had a member install some super-efficient fans in an animal building. Fans weren’t something we had a prescriptive rebate for, but because they were energy efficient we were able to provide incentives to help cover the cost.

That sounds great! How should members get started?

It’s never too early to contact your local electric cooperative! The sooner you get in touch, the more we can do to help you get the most out of the incentive programs. But even if you have plans already, we can work with you. The most important thing is to get in touch and start the conversation.