The Situation

JEA of Jacksonville, FL, is the seventh largest municipal electric utility company in the United States. Not subject to the same regulations as investor-owned utilities, JEA voluntarily and strategically pursues energy efficiency as a least-cost resource to provide customers with reliable, affordable electricity and support economic development.

Challenge

Jacksonville has a diverse economy including tourism, manufacturing, import-export services, and is a leading transportation and distribution hub with major port operations serving the auto industry. To serve such a wide range of commercial and industrial enterprises, JEA needed to develop and manage a portfolio of energy efficiency programs to meet the needs of business customers while keeping administrative costs low.

JEA chose Nexant to design and implement its InvestSmart suite of commercial and industrial energy efficiency programs, including the Small Business Direct Install (SBDI) program. JEA trusted Nexant’s experience and success in providing turnkey solutions to meet their diverse business challenges and overcome market barriers specific to each of their customer segments, especially small businesses.

Proven Results

Exceeding Goals Under Budget

In the first year of operation, the Small Business Direct Install program came in under budget on administrative costs while exceeding its energy savings target by more than 30%. Over the course of the entire energy efficiency program cycle, Nexant processed more than 500 incentive applications, resulting in nearly 4,600 megawatt hours of savings.

Nexant successfully used market intelligence and trade ally engagement under the utility’s guidelines to achieve our goal of impacting an important but difficult to reach small business community. Evidence of the program’s success comes from participant survey indicating very high overall satisfaction ratings.