New Jersey Low-Income Report Released

Comfort Partners, New Jersey's statewide energy efficiency program for the low income, spent about $15.5 million in 2005 and served 6,403 households.

That's according to the 2005 report of the New Jersey Clean Energy Program released April 21. The program, of which Comfort Partners is a component, provides financial and other incentives to all of the state's energy customers for the installation of energy efficient equipment or renewable energy technologies. It is funded through a societal benefits charge paid by electric and natural gas customers.

Comfort Partners provides low-income customers free installation of energy efficiency measures (including air sealing against drafts, insulation, and duct sealing), installation of high-performance products and appliances (such as compact fluorescent lighting and ENERGY STAR refrigerators), and performance of health and safety testing to detect, reduce, or prevent the existence of dangerous combustion by-products.

A partnership among the Office of Clean Energy, the state’s electric and natural gas utilities, and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the weatherization grantee, was reached in 2005 and is intended to better coordinate the weatherization efforts of the Comfort Partners Program and DCA’s Weatherization Assistance Program. The partnership will result in a streamlined administrative process that will result in more homes being treated. The utilities also issued requests for proposals s in 2005 that were designed, in part, to increase the program’s delivery capability. This, combined with the partnership agreement, should result in significantly more low-income homes being treated in 2006 than were treated in 2005, according to the report.

Source: New Jersey Board of Public Utilities

Page Last Updated: August 23, 2007