DeKalb County residents save on energy costs aided by $2M from Housing Authority

DeKALB – The Housing Authority of DeKalb County has received more than $2 million of energy efficiency incentives from two of Illinois’ predominant utility providers’ housing authority, officials said.

The Multi-Family Energy Savings program run by ComEd and Nicor Gas helped the housing agency save DeKalb County property owners money on energy-saving home improvements, officials said.

While it was announced the program had spurred $1.1 million worth of incentives in DeKalb County, a housing authority official said its figure was nearly double that total.

Randy Bourdages, the capital funds, contracts and procurement manager for the Housing Authority of DeKalb County, said the program helped DeKalb County residents upgrade to more energy efficient refrigerators, furnaces and heat pumps.

“We began our partnership back with the multi-family energy savings offerings with ComEd and Nicor back in the summer of 2011,” Bourdages said. He said his organization has received nearly $2 million, and the homeowners who’ve taken advantage of the program have saved as much as 30% of energy expenses.

“It ranges from 14 to 30%, which is outstanding,” Bourdages said.

The owners of properties with three or more residential units, and public housing authorities, are eligible for multi-family energy savings program offerings through ComEd. Nicor Gas also provides a free energy assessment to similarly sized properties.

Additional incentives are available but property owners have to fit a set of criteria.

“We could not have achieved all that we have accomplished over the last 13 years without our partnerships,” Bourdages said. “It really means a lot.”

Meena Beyers, Nicor Gas’ vice president of business and community development said the program has spurred $2.3 billion in economic activity since 2012 and that Nicor has provided $270 million in incentives to energy-saving projects.

“The emissions that we’ve avoided from those projects that have taken place since the program’s inception equates to the equivalent amount of emissions that would come from the energy used in 160,000 homes in a year,” Beyers said. “So it’s pretty significant.”

Louie Binswanger, with ComEd, also said the program aligns with government efforts to curb green house gas emissions.

“We are also focused on getting to this lower carbon future, a goal clearly called out in the state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act,” Binswanger said.