EarthCents is a Southern Company initiative designed to help customers save money and energy while
reducing greenhouse gases. EarthCents programs have
already reduced peak demand for electricity by 3,424
megawatts. That’s enough energy to power about a
half-million homes. Between now and 2020, Southern
Company plans to spend $1 billion on energy efficiency
and demand control programs, reducing peak demand
by an additional 1,000 megawatts.
Energy Efficiency Programs*
Residential energy efficiency programs include:
- Energy Check-ups/Audits help customers find ways to improve the efficiency of their homes by making major upgrades, as well as no-cost and low-cost ways to reduce energy use.
- Low income weatherization helps provide assistance to low-income
families to permanently reduce energy bills by making
their homes more energy efficient. - Home Energy Improvement identifies ways customers can save and provides incentives to customers to offset the cost of making efficiency upgrades to their homes.
- ENERGY STAR®, an EPA/Department of Energy program, helps
reduce energy consumption and protect the environment through
energy efficient practices and products.
- We’re establishing Time-of-Use and Plug-in Electric Vehicle rates so customers can more economically run appliances and pool pumps, and charge their electric vehicles overnight.
- Commercial Energy Efficiency programs offer incentives to help business customers offset the cost of making efficiency improvements in areas such as lighting, HVAC and other high efficiency equipment.
- Incentives are offered in some areas to help reduce the cost of geothermal heating and cooling systems, and a pilot program for solar thermal water heating is being offered with incentives in some jurisdictions.
- Our Real-time pricing reduces peak demand for electricity by giving commercial and industrial customers information on use and pricing.
- Energy Services help large customers design and install tailored solutions to meet their specific energy needs.
Research & Development
It’s only by research and development — and through relationships with partners like the U.S. Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) — that we can find the solutions to make energy cleaner and more efficient.
Southern Company is leading the nation in non-road electric transportation technology. We are promoting a multitude of total electric non-road transportation and charging technologies at airports, seaports, rail yards, mines, and distribution centers, where electric equipment is used in almost every industry to move cargo, stock, pallets, and other materials.
We are working with major vehicle manufacturers and EPRI to bring economically and technologically viable on-road electric transportation technologies to the marketplace, enhance the speed of adoption, and understand the impacts of vehicle charging on our nation’s electricity grid. We will develop mitigation strategies to lessen or eliminate any impacts.
We’re also studying the impact of electric transportation on grid reliability, including vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies.
We’re participating in demonstrations of several hyper-efficient residential and commercial technologies, including variable flow residential heat pumps, residential ductless heat pumps, and heat pump washer and dryer systems. We’re also demonstrating energy efficient LED (light-emitting diode) street lighting.