WA Interim REACH Evaluation Shows Success
in Leveraging Utility Resources
An interim evaluation of the Washington State
REACH project shows it has achieved at least some of its intended
goals of increasing the vendor contributions to Washington's
low income programs.
The initial approach of the project, for which
Washington received $1 million in 2000, was to permanently reduce
the cost of energy to LIHEAP households in the state by creating
low-income rate discounts or Percent of Income Payment Plans in
two investor-owned utilities and ten public utilities, to be accomplished
by providing financial, technical and professional resources to
the state's 30 community action agencies (CAAs) that operate
the LIHEAP and the Weatherization Assistance Program. Another program
goal was to provide lower utility rates to 68,000 low-income households
through the adoption of these types of programs through successful
advocacy by the CAA's before the Washington State Utility and
Transportation Commission and various public utility governing boards.
Some preliminary results of the pilot:
- Three investor-owned and five public utilities
have created low- income programs with REACH-funded advocacy within
the first year.
- Over $12.1 million in utility-funded low
income programs have been leveraged through REACH activities by
the 15 actively participating CAA's who represent 20 CAA's
within the state.
- 23 CAA's serving over 40,000 LIHEAP
households are receiving some sort of REACH leveraged funds
More information can be found in the
interim evaluation, the executive summary
and the logic model prepared by Robert Maxwell of Alaska Energy
Associates. For more information, contact Maxwell, or the project administrator, A World Institute
for a Sustainable Humanity, or
Bruce
Yasutake at
the Washington LIHEAP.
Page Last Updated: December 7, 2005
