Progress Energy Launches Neighborhood Energy Savers at Pisgah View

Pictured (L-R): John Smith, Western Regional VP for Progress-Carolinas, Martha Thompson, Progress Energy Community Relations Manager, Lloyd Yates, and Gene Bell, Executive Director of the Asheville Housing Authority. Photo: Michael Hopping

by Michael Hopping

A low-income neighborhood including the Pisgah View Apartments is the first in the Carolinas to benefit from a new energy conservation and efficiency project from Progress Energy. Neighborhood Energy Savers (NES) is designed to help low-income customers save electricity and money on power bills — at no cost to them. 

Progress Carolinas CEO Lloyd Yates, Congressman Heath Shuler, Mayor Terry Bellamy, and other dignitaries were on hand to launch the program at the Pisgah View Community Center on October 19.

Yates described NES as another step his company is taking toward a
brighter energy future. Progress is spending $500 million dollars over
five years on efficiency and conservation measures. The company hopes
to save 2,000 megawatts (MW) in the Carolinas service territory within
the next ten years.

Yates also expects to shave 250 MW off peak demand system-wide. This is
particularly important in Western North Carolina, where, on a cold
winter morning last January, demand for electricity reached a record
level not anticipated until 2014.

The NES program will be offered to selected communities where most
households have an income at or below 150% of poverty level. Pisgah
View and parts of a central Asheville neighborhood are first on
Progress’s list. Approximately 1,300 homes and apartments are eligible
to participate on a voluntary basis.

NES participants receive a free home energy audit from a qualified
auditor. Certified technicians then perform upgrades and provide energy
saving tips. Upgrades may include compact fluorescent lightbulbs, an
insulating blanket for a water heater, a low-flow showerhead, caulking,
weather-stripping, cleaning refrigerator coils, replacing furnace
filters, and other measures. Progress estimates that these improvements
will reduce a homeowner’s annual electricity bill by as much as $95 per
year.

Costs of the program, $300-$350 per home, are covered by an electric rate increase that Progress began to phase in last winter.

The Neighborhood Energy Savers district includes Livingston Heights Apartments.

Representative Shuler praised NES and Progress’s decision to begin in
Asheville. “Asheville and Buncombe County are leaders in moving toward
a greener future,” Shuler said. “Low-income people spend more of their
budget on energy than any other sector of the community. We’re glad
Progress is taking the lead, but we can also do this through our
churches and at home as well.”

Mayor Bellamy said the city is working hard to reduce its carbon
footprint. “Progress Energy is helping our community become more
sustainable. I appreciate them coming here. Progress is a good
corporate citizen.”

In mid-November NES will shift from Pisgah View to the Livingston
Heights Apartments and a defined area of nearby neighborhoods,
including French Broad Avenue between Dailey Drive on the north and
Choctaw and Ralph Streets on the south. A kick-off for the Livingston
Heights phase is scheduled for November 18.

Vince Iamunno of Honeywell Utility Solutions, the contractor whom
Progress hired to do the audits and upgrades, said his two crews should
be able to upgrade about 100 residences per week. He estimated that
work in Asheville will be completed by the first of the year. NES will
then travel to other North and South Carolina cities.

In Asheville, the NES program is being conducted in partnership with
the City of Asheville, Community Action Opportunities, and North
Carolina’s Weatherization Assistance Program.