NW utilities re-up their commitment to efficiency, NEEA

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance announced Tuesday that 13 regional energy organizations chipped in $192 million to fund NEEA for the next five years.

Organizations including the Energy Trust of Oregon, Pacific Power, Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy paid to establish NEEA a decade ago to focus on regional energy efficiency programs.

NEEA is working on a five-year plan to save the region 200 average megawatts of power by 2014, enough energy to power 138,000 homes for a year.

“We will use our increased funding to deepen market transformation for energy efficiency, create green jobs, directly support the region's Sixth Power Plan and strengthen the Northwest economy by helping to secure low power rates for energy consumers for the long term,” said Claire Fulenwider, NEEA's executive director, in a statement.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a four-state organization responsible for creating a 20-year power plan for the region, recently adopted its Sixth Power Plan. That plan projects that 58 percent of the new demand for electricity over the next five years, and 85 percent over the next 20 years, could be met through energy efficiency measures.