Category: Idaho

Program changes for Rocky Mountain Power Wattsmart® Business – Idaho

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Program changes for Rocky Mountain Power Wattsmart® Business in Idaho effective November 17, 2025.

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Lighting: Plug and Play Controls Ready
Lighting: Retrofits incentives
Midstream incentives
New Construction/Major Renovation
Non-lighting incentives

Wattsmart® Business is always looking for ways to improve our program and make it easier for you to serve your customers with the best products and incentives. Our program evolves as technology changes, and as we gain insights from experience. Rocky Mountain Power is planning updates to the Wattsmart Business program in Idaho that will be effective November 17, 2025.  We’ll have new approaches for lighting, New Construction/Major Renovation and non-lighting incentives.

Lighting: Plug and Play Controls Ready 🌟New🌟

We developed this category in response to emerging lighting technology, and it applies to all lighting offers. Plug and Play Controls Ready lighting offers you flexibility with receptacles that allow for a toolless addition of controls during installation or in the future. If your customer opts for controls in the future, there’s no need to rewire the system, which cuts your labor costs. Several incentives are available in this category:

  • You may submit for the plug-and-play lighting incentive at the time of installation.
  • If the fixtures include a module, plug-and-play controls can be submitted as a Networked Lighting Controls or Advanced Networked Lighting Controls project, and we will honor the highest incentive for your customer.
  • You may submit for a controls-only project incentive in the future.

Incentive Table

Lighting: Retrofits incentives

Express incentives

We are introducing an Express path to allow you to apply for most lighting projects on a post-purchase application process, which can be quickly submitted through the new online tool. Unlike past prescriptive incentives that calculated the incentive amount per fixture, Express incentives offer an incentive amount per watt installed and are not limited to specific retrofit kit/fixture categories. Express excludes replacement lamps, controls only, new construction and major renovation, and projects where there is an LED baseline and has different rates for interior and exterior installations.

  • Uses classifications
    • No controls
    • Plug and Play Controls Ready
    • NLCs
    • Luminaire Level Lighting Controls

Small and Medium Business Express incentives

We are expanding the previous Small Business Enhanced category to include medium-sized businesses too. This category uses the Express incentive structure described above, and this new category will be referred to as SMBE.

The original 75% incentive cap still applies, but you have more opportunities to achieve it. Rather than one set incentive of 75%, SMBE offers higher incentive levels.

The Express category excludes replacement lamps, is phasing out the lighting tool and offers you a new eligibility site.

Calculated (non-prescriptive)

Our non-prescriptive path goes by a few names such as calculated, typical or simply the lighting tool path. We’re making some enhancements to the lighting tool.

The biggest change is that there is one incentive rate for all customer sizes, eliminating segmentation in the tool. The Basic Controls category is being replaced with Plug and Play Controls Ready. This is the exclusive path for controls-only projects. You can receive lighting incentives for most product types in the tool, with the exception of replacement lamps, which are excluded from this category.

Exterior lighting

The following new measures have been added:

  • No controls
  • Basic or NLC
  • ANLC

All non-general illuminance will now be grouped in the non-prescriptive custom category.

Incentive Table

Midstream lighting incentives

This is the exclusive path for replacement lamps. As part of our program changes, the LED Instant Incentive and the existing post-purchase application are now replaced with the Express offering. Fixtures, kits, and controls will all be available downstream in the Express application or lighting tool.

The fullstream model of shared incentives is now combined into a midstream exclusive offer for replacement lamps. Incentives will be paid to the participating distributor, who may pass the incentive through to the customer. Approved midstream trade allies may submit via single-sale log entries or via bulk uploads. If you are not signed up as a participating distributor, please contact us to apply.

Incentive Table

New Construction/Major Renovation

New Construction/Major Renovation lighting incentives are changing to a tiered pay-for-savings structure where various incentive amounts per kilowatt hour apply based on the type of controls used.

Interior lighting

  • No controls
  • NLC
  • ANLC

Exterior lighting

New measures added include:

  • No controls
  • Basic dimming controls
  • ANLC dimming controls

Incentive Table

Non-lighting incentives

The Green Motor Rewinds incentive is being removed from the program. 

TRANSITION PLAN:  

For projects requiring pre-approval, see the table to understand which incentive applies.
For post-purchase projects, the earlier invoice date for the project is used to determine which version of the program applies.

Offer Letter dated prior to 10/2/25; projects completed prior to10/2/25 We will use the program version in effect when the incentive offer letter was issued. 
Offer Letter dated from 10/2/25-11/16/25 Option to run on either incentive structure.
Offer Letter dated 11/17/25 or later New program with changes is in full effect.

 Incentive Table

QUESTIONS? Contact us, we are happy to help! 

Charter Schools, Health Services and More Are Ready For Savings

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Random cold-calling can be time-consuming. That is why the Wattsmart team has targeted specific businesses that may be unaware of the Wattsmart savings opportunities but could benefit from an upgrade.

Summer is the perfect time to talk to local charter schools about energy efficiency opportunities. To support our vendors in this endeavor, postcards went out to Idaho and Wyoming charter schools in June. The message was that now is a good time to reduce operating costs.

An additional group we mailed to recently is health services—doctors, dentists, physical therapists, laboratories, etc. Upgraded lighting can vastly improve patients’ experiences. Others we plan to contact include auto repair shops and eating/drinking establishments.

Wattsmart has proactively reached out to these customer segments in an effort to generate leads for you, our vendors. After we identify an opportunity, the first question we ask a customer is if they have a preferred vendor. If they do not, we refer them to our Premium Vendor Network. It pays to be Premium!

If you have existing customers that fall into these categories, now is a great time to reach out to them again to see what energy efficiency opportunities may exist. Below are links to the cards that were already sent. You can print them out and present them when you visit any of these businesses. Contact the Wattsmart Business team if you need support with this or any other program.

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Link to the Charter School card

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Link to Health Services card

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Program Update: Fullstream

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You have probably heard Wattsmart program staff talking about a Fullstream incentive. But what exactly is a Fullstream incentive, and how do you participate? A Fullstream model takes the incentive that would historically be given entirely to the end-use electrical user (Downstream) and splits it up to be shared by distributors (Midstream) and the end-use electrical user. This was done to help distributors offset the cost of stocking more expensive Wattsmart program-eligible products. When distributors have more eligible products in stock, customers have better access to lighting products that are eligible for Wattsmart incentives.

 So how does it work? When a distributor sells qualifying products to a commercial customer, they can report the sale to the Wattsmart program and receive incentive money for the lighting products sold. The sales information is commonly reported by the distributor running a monthly lighting sales report and submitting the sales data to the Wattsmart program. Any purchase of an eligible product made by a commercial customer who is located within an approved zip code qualifies for incentives. Commercial customers can be contractors, ESCO, end-use customers, etc., purchasing from the distributor. It is preferred but not required to identify where the product will be installed or collect the Rocky Mountain Power customer information during these transactions.

In addition, distributors or electrical contractors should inform their Rocky Mountain Power commercial customers that they are eligible for Downstream incentives by completing a post-purchase application. This allows the Rocky Mountain Power customer to receive their portion of the incentive that is shared in the Fullstream model. For more information, please contact your Wattsmart program outreach coordinator.

 

For links to the other articles in this issue, go back to the original email.

Idaho Full-Stream Incentive

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Image Courtesy of H.E. Williams

A full-stream incentive program has rolled out in Idaho. The intent of the program is to encourage distributors to stock eligible products in their stores by allocating a portion of the incentive directly to them. This will help offset the additional expense associated with Wattsmart program-approved products that may otherwise be too costly to stock. Don’t worry; Rocky Mountain Power customers can still receive an incentive, too. Since only a portion of the incentive is given to the distributor, customers have the opportunity to claim the remaining amount of the incentive by a point-of-purchase or post-purchase application.  

Many customers are already familiar with the point-of-purchase model participating distributors offer. In this situation, distributors submit the application on behalf of the customer and provide a discounted price to customers upfront. An incentive check will then be mailed to the distributor to cover the reduced selling price of the product. Alternately, Wattsmart program vendors that are not eligible to participate in the point-of-purchase path still have access to a post-purchase application. Installers can assist their customers in completing the post-purchase application, and an incentive check will be mailed directly to the customer.  

Implementing a full-stream model will help ensure that a greater number of eligible products are available. This will result in more approved items being installed at customers’ facilities. Whether customers buy direct from distributors or work with installers, the Wattsmart program has an incentive path to help.