If you are a nonprofit hoping to save money on your energy bills, and you are located in Xcel Energy and/or CenterPoint Energy service territory, you might want to schedule a visit with EnerChange.
We spoke with Michael T’Kach, Energy Manager with EnerChange, to learn more about how they are helping nonprofits save energy and money to better serve their missions.
Tell us a little bit about EnerChange.
Michael T’Kach: EnerChange is a Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) program, authorized by the Minnesota Department of Commerce to help nonprofit organizations who do not traditionally have an on-staff energy engineer. EnerChange provides one and collects data over a detailed 2-3 hour walk through of their building(s).
Energy efficiency is all we do, and we do it at no cost. We sell no products and endorse no vendors in particular. We’re in the Xcel and CenterPoint service territories in Minnesota to help nonprofit organizations learn about specific energy efficiency opportunities for their buildings to lower their utility costs and participate in all available rebate programs.
As long as a nonprofit is in Xcel or CenterPoint service territory, can you work with them? Xcel has some places pretty far from their core Metro service area.
Michael T’Kach: Even at this we try to be energy efficient. We do get calls from the Xcel Business Solution Center to help a remote Animal Humane shelter with their gas heating bills or a far away food shelf with an overworked freezer and bad seals! So when Xcel finds a nonprofit that needs help in an area, we start calling around and line up additional audits for that day to at least get a two-fer on our mileage.
Do you have an idea about the number of non-profits eligible for your services and how many have taken advantage of this opportunity so far?
Michael T’Kach: Minnesota is rich in nonprofit foundations and organizations. Many do not operate out of buildings and can have rather small staffs. Some simply rent office space in commercial buildings and share utility costs. EnerChange can help nonprofits that pay their own utility bills, whether in owned or rented spaces. We want to show the baseline concept and then identify opportunities and set dollar-goals for a particular month and track our efforts. The first 10% isn’t hard to find; we really enjoy digging deeper and looking for 20% and 30% monthly ongoing bill savings.
What do people like best about EnerChange?
Michael T’Kach: “It all adds up” is what I hear from so many Buildings and Grounds Committee meetings. A few thousand dollars of avoided costs really matters to a church with limited budgets, for instance, and many nonprofits work on slim margins and can put that few thousand dollars to good use. We’ve helped all sizes of nonprofits to see that utility bills can be managed, predicted, and lowered on an ongoing basis.
What suggestions would you give to a nonprofit working to reduce their energy costs?
Michael T’Kach: Be mindful of your thermostat. If it’s not digital and programmed to automatically change the temp when no one is around, then do that first. Second is to think about anything that is “on” all the time; that’s the electrical device that will be worth spending some money on to find a more efficient model. Always choose the ENERGY STAR model when purchasing new.
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