Overview of Low-Income Restructuring
Legislation and Implementation

Vermont
Last Updated: May 2009
Summary

Although Vermont has not adopted utility restructuring legislation – the usual route for funding statewide energy efficiency programs – the state Public Service Board established Efficiency Vermont as an energy efficiency "utility." Its chartered purposes include increasing the level of energy efficiency savings in Vermont, providing integrated and consistent electric energy efficiency services statewide, and ensuring that all Vermont consumers are given the opportunity to participate in and benefit from a comprehensive set of cost-effective energy efficiency services.

Efficiency Vermont (EVT) is funded through a separately stated, non-bypassable volumetric systems benefits charge on distribution utilities' bills. State legislation, S. 137, effective June 1, 1999, authorized the Board to create Efficiency Vermont and to fund it through the charge. The size of the systems benefits charge varies from one utility to the next. Each utility negotiated its contribution to energy efficiency based on factors unique to its service territory.

EVT’s services, administered by Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, replace the individual demand-side management programs that Vermont's 22 utilities had conducted for about a decade. A range of energy efficiency services are available for all customer classes (residential, including low-income multifamily and single family; commercial; industrial and agriculture).

As stated in EVT’s draft annual plan for 2009-2011, EVT will continue its relationship with the five community-based weatherization agencies to provide maximum cost-effective electric efficiency measures, at no cost, to low-income households. While the weatherization assistance program (WAP) traditionally focuses on the thermal shell of the customer’s home and the reduction of fossil fuel energy use, EVT provides financial and technical assistance for cost-effective electrical efficiency improvements. Qualifying measures include efficient lighting, electric water heating conservation, conversion of electric space and/or water heating equipment to less costly fuels, and replacement of inefficient refrigerators with high-efficiency ENERGY STAR labeled models.

Minimum EVT spending requirements for residential customers for 2009-2011 is $19.7 million of which $6.3 million is designated for low-income residents.

In 2008, $530,053 went towards electric energy efficiency measures for 1,022 single-family low-income households through Efficiency Vermont’s partnership with the state’s WAP. The majority of incentives went towards replacing refrigerators with more efficient models ($268,605), replacing electric water heaters with oil, gas or propane units ($155,044) and installing energy efficient light bulbs and fixtures ($73,031).

Efficiency Vermont also provides financial incentives towards the cost of energy efficient measures to property owners of multifamily residential dwellings and installs energy efficient lighting and water conservation measures at no cost to owners. Electric energy efficiency financial incentives and retrofit measures in new and existing low-income multifamily buildings were funded at $219,426 in 2008.

Estimated total funding in 2009 for residential and business programs is over $25 million. Fifteen percent of Efficiency Vermont’s total spending, about $3.7 million for 2009, must fund low-income programs including multifamily retrofits and new construction. The projected budget for all residential programs in 2009 is $11.25 million.

Additional funding for WAP comes from Vermont’s Weatherization Trust Fund, which was created in 1990 through legislative enactment of a gross receipts tax of 0.5 percent on regulated utilities and all fuels except wood. The trust fund statute allows reimbursement in the form of rebates to energy vendors who operate qualifying energy conservation programs for the low income. Since 2005, WAP has received between $6.0 to $6.8 million per year from the Trust Fund.

The latest evaluations of EVT’s programs were conducted in 2005 and included an assessment, key findings, conclusions and recommendations for each residential component: lighting program, appliance program and new construction.

Some of the conclusions were:

• Through energy efficiency investments made since 2000, Vermont is now using 5 percent less energy than the state would have used without the investments.
  
  
• In 2005, Vermont ratepayers saved more than $2 for every $1 invested in energy efficiency.
  
  
• Efficiency measures installed in 2005 helped Vermonters save: 435 gallons of water, 3.5 million gallons of oil, 2 million gallons of propane and 446 million cubic feet of natural gas.

The Evaluations are available at:
http://publicservice.vermont.gov/pub/2003-2005summaryreport.htm

More information is available at Efficiency Vermont, including its 2008 Preliminary Results and Savings Estimate Report and draft 2009-2011 Annual Plan at:
www.efficiencyvermont.com/pages/Common/AboutUs/AnnualReport/

The memorandum of understanding, which outlines many features of Efficiency Vermont, the order that created it and other materials can be accessed at: www.state.vt.us/psb/news/EEU_info.htm

S. 137, the enabling legislation for Efficiency Vermont, can be found at: www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2000/acts/ACT060.HTM

 

Return to State Overviews

Page Last Updated: September 24, 2009