Texas program succeeds, but faces sunset.
Wannie Park is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at CEIVA Energy, a provider of in-home displays for the LITE-UP Texas program.
Record-breaking temperatures in Texas in recent years have caused electricity bills to soar. That impacts everyone's pocketbook, but no one more so than low-income Texans. In August 2013, for example, the average household in Austin consumed 2,157 kilowatt hours of electricity, costing $235. Roughly 8 percent of households were delinquent with their electricity payments and the majority of these households were low-income residents. When costs are skyrocketing and customers can't afford electricity, all parties lose.
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To address this problem, two years ago, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) initiated the LITE-UP Texas program (https://www.puc.texas.gov/consumer/lowincome/assistance.aspx), which promotes energy efficiency by paying an incentive to competitive retail electric providers (REPs) to equip low-income electric ratepayers with in-home displays that reveal details on home energy use and make it easier for consumers to save on their electric bills.
LITE-UP Texas was developed out of a fund that was created in 1999 (known as the System Benefit Fund) as part of deregulation. Texas citizens and businesses pay a small fee on their monthly electricity bill to finance the fund. But more importantly, under the LITE-UP program, retailers earn a direct payment of $60 for each in-home display they provide to low-income Texans.