Rural Utilities Service
Service, Electric Program
Energy Efficiency Effort
Gerry Moore
Energy Forecasting Branch Chief
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Some History of the Electric Program
•
Providing
Pro
iding reliable,
reliable affordable electricity
electricit is essential to the economic well-being
ell being and
quality of life for all of the nation's rural residents.
•
The Electric Programs make direct loans and loan guarantees to electric utilities to
serve customers in rural areas.
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The Electric Programs provide leadership and capital to upgrade, expand, maintain, and
replace
l
America's
A
i ' vastt rurall electric
l t i iinfrastructure
f t t
•
Under the authority of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936
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Loans Administered by the Electric Program
FFB Guaranteed Loans
• Eligible Facilities: Distribution, transmission (bulk and subtransmission), generation and headquarters
(office, service and warehouse) facilities, including system improvements to furnish and
improve electric service in rural areas, as well as energy efficiency, demand side management, energy
conservation programs, and on-grid and off grid renewable energy systems.
• Eligible Borrowers: Retail and power supply providers .
• Interest Rate: Interest rates will be established daily by the United States
Treasury. Added to that rate is 1/8 of one percent. The interest rate is determined
at the time of each advance.
• Supplemental Financing Required: No
• Loan Term: Term of loan not to exceed useful life of the facilities being financed, with a
years Power supply borrower
borrower’ss loan term is also based on the term
maximum term of 35 years.
of its wholesale power contracts.
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Electric Program Customers
•
The 561 distribution, 57 power supply, and grant recipients that currently access
capital through the RUS Electric Programs are an integral component of the
nation’s $255 billion electric utility industry.
•
The majority of borrowers are electric cooperatives established to provide
electricity at cost to the consumers/owners who establish the policies and
procedures under which the cooperatives operate.
operate
•
The Electric Program also serves a small number of publicly owned utilities,
tribal utilities, and small remote private utilities serving rural customers.
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Eligible Borrowers
Eligible borrowers
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•
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•
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Corporations
States
Territories
Subdivisions
Municipalities
People's Utility Districts
Cooperative
Non-profit
Limited-Dividends or Mutual Associations that provide retail electric or power
supply service needs in rural areas.
The Electric Program serves approximately 700 borrowers in 46 states, plus the
active territories of the Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa.
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Loan Dollars by Project Type
In fiscal year 2010, we approved $2 billion for new distribution facilities, $595 million for
transmission, $313 million for renewable energy projects, and $675 million for environmental
improvements.
$2,500,000,000
$2,000,000,000
$1,500,000,000
$1,000,000,000
$500,000,000
$0
New
Distribution
Distribution Transmission
Reimbursement
Renewables
Warehouse
and
Headquarters
Acquisitions
Environmental
Improvements
Loan Programs By Purpose
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Figure 8: Counties Impacted by Power Supply and Distribution Loan Programs
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If that is not enough!
• The 2008 Farm Bill provided RUS with the express
authority to implement an energy efficiency program.
• Existing Energy Resource Conservation (ERC) program
is limited to direct loan principal deferments capped at 7
years.
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Recovery Through Retrofit
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In May 2009 Vice President Biden charged the White House Council on
Environmental Quality (CEQ) with developing a proposal for Federal
Action that will grow green job opportunities and boost energy savings by
retrofitting homes for energy efficiency
In response,
response CEQ has facilitated an interagency process to develop a
report with recommendations with specific Federal actions addressing
barriers to the development of a national-scale home retrofit market
The CEQ RTR Team is comprised of multiple Federal Agencies including
Energy, Agriculture, Labor, Housing, EPA and others
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Recovery Through Retrofit
Barriers
Some of the identified barriers to improving home energy efficiency
improvements include
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•
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Access to Information – Consumers do not have access to reliable and
straightforward information about home energy retrofits
Access to Financing – The upfront costs of home energy efficiency
improvements are often beyond the average homeowners budget
Access to Skilled Workers – There are currently not enough skilled
workers and entrepreneurs to accommodate retrofit programs on a national
scale
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Recovery Through Retrofit
Agency Efforts
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Home Energy Score (DOE)
Develop and test a software based Home Energy Scoring (HES)Tool
Train and qualify home energy assessors to conduct home energy
efficiency analysis using the HES tool
Pil the
Pilot
h program iin 10 states for
f testing
i andd ddevelopment
l
off the
h HES tooll
Compare the results of the HES tool against other energy efficiency
methods
USDA / Rural Cooperatives helped the DOE effort by piloting the HES
Tool in four states
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Recovery Through Retrofit
Home Energy Score (HES) Rural Pilots
South Carolina Rural Electric Assoc – SC
• Group includes 20 consumer owned electric cooperatives & a wholesale
power supply cooperative
Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative – IN
• G&T C
Cooperative
i with
i h 18 members
b bbased
d iin Bl
Bloomington,
i
Indiana
I di
United Electric Cooperative Services, Inc. - TX
• Electric Distribution Cooperative based in Cleburne, Texas
Central Electric Power Cooperative - VA
• Electric Distribution Cooperative based in Arrington, Virginia
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Rural Economic Development Energy Efficiency Effort
REDEEE
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REDEEE is the USDA team supporting Recovery Through Retrofit
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REDEEE consists of Rural Utilities Service, Rural Housing Service, Rural
Business Service and Community Facilities
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USDA’s Rural Development programs are ideal for supporting energy
efficiency for housing, businesses, farms and utilities
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Rural Economic Development Energy Efficiency Effort
REDEEE
Objectives
• Communication with electric cooperatives selected by DOE’s RTR team
• Train the electric cooperatives on RD’s funding resources that can affect
energy efficiency
• Communication
C
i i with
i h RD State
S
staff
ff on RTR progress
Scope
• Initial scope includes electric cooperatives in South Carolina, Indiana,
Virginia and Texas
• Expanded scope included all homeowners and small businesses served by
rural electric cooperatives across the country
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REDEEE
Potential Funding associated with REDEEE
Rurall B
R
Business
i
• Rural Economic Loan Program
• Rural Economic Grant Program
Rural Housing Program
• 502 Guaranteed Program
g
• 502 Direct Program
• 504 Direct Program
Community Facilities
• Direct Loans
• Direct Guarantees
• Grants
Rural Utilities Service
• Federal Financing Bank
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Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant
REDLG Loans
Applicant Eligibility
• Eligible RUS borrower under 7 USC 940c, and…
• Does not have any delinquent debt with the Federal
Government
Purpose
• Loans are made to eligible intermediaries to promote rural
economic development and job creation in rural areas
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Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant
Eligible Uses of REDLG Loan Funds
• Project feasibility studies
• Advanced telecommunications services and computer
networks for medical, educational and job training services
• Community Facility type projects
• Energy Efficiency Upgrades……
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RED Loan Terms
• Loans must carry an interest rate of 0%
• Loan term may not exceed 10 years
• Loan may have deferral of up to 2 years for start up operation
and 1 year for established operations
operations.
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REDEEE/ RTR Reporting
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Weekly to the AAE
Monthly to the USEC and ADM
Monthly to CEQ
Quarterly presentations to the USEC
SharePoint with information is maintained
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Energy Efficiency Regulation
•In
In the manual RUS proposes to publish
publish, we expect one accepted business practice
would include the ultimate consumer could repay the loan through on-bill financing
similar to the REDLG1 program
•This loan program is not targeted at specific energy efficiency technologies but
allows borrowers to utilize a wide variety of energy efficiency products and services.
•We
W expectt th
these lloans will
ill be
b smaller
ll relative
l ti to
t other
th RUS loans.
l
•RUS is utilizing authority authorized in 2008 Farm Bill to implement an energy
efficiency loan program. A purpose of the proposed EE program is to foster the
creation of new and permanent jobs in rural areas.
•This is an opportunity for USDA to partner with sister departments such as DOE
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Energy Efficiency Regulation
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RUS expects to publish the proposed rule imminently.
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We expect the program to be funded out of existing authority and appropriations
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The regulation will allow new financing opportunities for RUS borrowers to provide energy
efficiency and weatherization activities to businesses and homeowners in rural America.
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Currently over ninety percent of rural cooperatives (RUS primary borrowers) have some
form of energy efficiency program. This program will help leverage and expand existing
and new energy efficiency programs.
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This program is envisioned to include a relending program that enables borrowers to lend to
the businesses or homeowners
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http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html
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www.usda.gov/rus/electric
[email protected]
gerard moore@wdc usda gov
[email protected]
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