On August 8, 2015, Energy Trust made adjustments to the Lighting Tool and commercial and industrial lighting incentives. Projects received by Energy Trust without an incentive agreement request and/or all necessary documentation prior to close of business on August 7, 2015, will be subject to the updated incentives.

LED technology has become predominant in energy-efficiency projects, and we anticipate this trend to continue. Long life, maintenance savings, absence of hazardous materials, controllability, more energy savings and increased cost-effectiveness have resulted in a shift toward LED products. In fact, LED lighting has comprised the majority of savings from commercial and industrial lighting savings so far this year.

As a result of changes in federal standards, cost-effectiveness for linear fluorescents has declined. While fluorescent technology still has an important role in the market, several prescriptive linear fluorescent incentives will be changed or removed. Prescriptive linear fluorescent measures that no longer receive standard incentives may be eligible for custom incentives if they meet cost-effectiveness requirements.

Some of the incentive changes include:

T12 existing (40-watt or 34-watt):

• Discontinued: T12 to T8 lamp and ballast-only retrofits that result in the same light levels
• Discontinued: 1-lamp and 2-lamp existing T12 to T8 lamp and ballast only retrofit options
• Discontinued: 8’ T12 to 4’ T8 lamp and ballast retrofits
• Modified: Enhanced LED 1×4, 2×2 and 2×4 incentives will require volumetric lens and >100 lumens per watt total fixture efficiency
• Continuing: Several options with low ballast factor in combination with reduced wattage lamps are used, or when fixtures are delamped
• Continuing: Enhanced incentives for existing 3- or 4-lamp T12 to 2-lamp T8 reduced wattage retrofit kit/fixture with high-performance lens and low ballast factor
• Continuing: Incentives for LED retrofit kits and new LED fixtures
• Continuing: Products with no prescriptive incentives available may be eligible for custom incentives; however, all custom incentives are subject to cost-effectiveness requirements. Operating hours of 3,000-4,000 hours per year are typically needed to meet cost-effective requirements when retrofitting T12 to 28-watt T8 with normal ballast factor, depending on the quantity of lamps per fixture
• New: Enhanced incentives for most TLED retrofit options

T8 existing (32-watt):

• Discontinued: T8 to T8 lamp and ballast-only retrofits that result in the same light levels
• Discontinued: 1-lamp, 2-lamp and 3-lamp existing to T8 lamp and ballast-only retrofit options;
• Modified: Enhanced LED 1×4, 2×2 and 2×4 incentives will require volumetric lens and >100 lumens per watt total fixture efficiency
• Continuing: 4-lamp to reduced wattage T8 with low ballast factor ballast
• Continuing: Enhanced incentives for existing 3- or 4-lamp 32-watt T8 to 2-lamp T8 reduced wattage retrofit kit/fixture with high-performance lens and low ballast factor
• Continuing: Incentives for LED retrofit kits and new LED fixtures
• Continuing: Lamp replacement (no ballast change) incentives for reduced wattage lamps
• Continuing: Products with no prescriptive incentives available may be eligible for custom incentives; however, all custom incentives are subject to cost-effectiveness requirements. Operating hours of 5,000-7,000 per year are typically needed to meet cost-effectiveness requirements when retrofitting from 32-watt T8 to 28-watt T8 with normal ballast factor, depending on the quantity of lamps per fixture
• New: Enhanced incentives for most TLED retrofit options

LED downlights

• Modified: Prescriptive incentive only available when replacing existing 150-watt incandescent  or less. All other existing technologies and wattages are eligible for custom incentives subject to cost-effectiveness requirements

Controls

• Discontinued: Prescriptive daylighting control incentives. It was found that all projects with daylighting also use other control technologies and are therefore considered custom control systems and subject to the custom cost-effectiveness requirements.

Dimming ballasts and drivers

• Discontinued: Prescriptive incentives for step dimming or continuous dimming ballasts and drivers. Custom incentives are still available when dimming is used as part of a custom control system.

Energy Trust’s lighting team is here to help you through the incentive process and incentive changes. For more information, contact one of our lighting specialists or Aaron Leatherwood, program manager, at 503.724.9375.