Program Changes for Rocky Mountain Power Wattsmart® Business – Utah

Program changes proposed for Rocky Mountain Power Wattsmart® Business effective July 11. Watch our video or read below for more details.

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 we gain insights from experience. Rocky Mountain Power is proposing updates to the Wattsmart Business program in Utah that, if approved, will be effective July 11, 2025.  We’ll have new approaches for lighting pathways, new construction/major renovation and non-lighting incentives.  

We developed this category in response to emerging lighting technology, and it applies to all lighting pathways. Plug-and-play controls-ready lighting offers you flexibility with receptacles that allow for a tool-less 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

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. The 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 (SMBE) 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, so 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 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. 

Incentive Table 

Midstream 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 full stream model of shared incentives is now combined into a midstream exclusive offer. Approved midstream trade allies may submit via single-sale log entries or via bulk uploads. 

Incentive Table

New Construction Major Renovation  

Most projects in this category include more than one system (e.g. lighting, HVAC or building envelope) and qualify for the Whole Building New Construction/Major Renovation offering. If you have Whole Building questions, please contact Jessica Balance at 801-639-5601 jballance@resource-innovations.com. 

If only a single system is changed, the project would fall into the following categories:  

  •  New Construction incentives are available for most common building types lighting including Controlled Environmental Agriculture. For Major Renovation, lighting, HVAC, or building envelope is eligible for the incentives linked in the table below. 

Single system 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: 

  • No controls
  • Basic or NLC
  • ANLC  

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 tariff applies.

    Offer Letter dated prior to 6/11/25; projects completed prior to 7/11/25  We will use the program version in effect when the incentive offer letter was issued. 
    Offer Letter dated from 6/11/25-7/11/25  Option to run on either incentive structure.
    Offer Letter Dated 7/11/25 or after  New program with changes is in full effect. 

    QUESTIONS? Contact us, we are happy to help! 

    Featured Vendor – Codale Electric Supply

    Congratulations to our Wattsmart Lighting Madness promotion winner, Codale Electric Supply, Inc. of Salt Lake City. Codale was founded in 1975 and has been a Wattsmart vendor for more than 15 years.

    They were the top finisher with 868,488 kWh in savings. For their efforts, they earned a $10,000 incentive and a personalized Rocky Mountain Power case study which will be included in an upcoming Wattsmart Wednesday segment on Fox13.

    Let us know if you think we should offer more promotions like this one by taking our brief, one-question survey in the email you received. 

    Codale with trophy
    Wattsmart lighting madness
    Wattsmart lighting madness
    Wattsmart lighting madness
    Wattsmart lighting madness

    Wattsmart Lighting Madness Winners 2024!

    Codale Electric Supply was our first-place finisher in the Wattsmart Madness promotion!

    They earned:  

    • A $10,000 performance incentive for their effort.  
    • A personalized case study ad.
    • A feature on an upcoming segment of Rocky Mountain Power’s Wattsmart Wednesday on Fox 13!

    Congratulations!

    Additionally, congratulations to our semi-finalists. The runner-up was Lighting Maintenance & Service, Inc. (LMS).

    For finishing second, they earned

    • A $5,000 performance incentive.
    • A personalized case study ad.
    • A feature in an upcoming Rocky Mountain Power social media post.

    In third place was DiVi Energy, LLC, and in fourth place, Conserve-A-Watt Lighting. Both will receive

    • A $2,500 performance incentive.
    • A personalized case study ad.

     

    Thank you to all our vendors who participated and helped their customers save energy through incentives.

    Utah Training Event

    Look for an email invitation to our annual 2025 Wattsmart Business and Wattsmart Homes Vendor event in Sandy, Utah, on April 30, 2025, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  

    The goal of this event is for you to come away saying, “Wow, I learned some good stuff.” We will share the agenda soon. In the meantime, know that:

    • It will be an interactive, expo-style event again.
    • New this year, you can consult with our marketing experts for promotional tips about how to grow your business and reputation.
    • You’ll learn about available Wattsmart Business incentives. 
    • We will review the 2025 Utah program changes.  
    • We can discuss and ask questions about current trends and technologies in today’s energy-saving market. 
    • You should enjoy breakfast.
    • Plan on taking home some fun and useful gifts! 

    Countdown to the event

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    Brad Gilchrist, Customer Outreach

    Brad joined the Salt Lake City-based non-lighting outreach team in June 2023 on the customer outreach side of the program.  Brad comes from an executive sales role, most recently as the national sales manager for Dowdle Puzzles.  He brings great energy, new perspective, strategy and out-of-the-box thinking to the team.

    Brad is a lifelong Disneyland fan, having recently returned from a four-day trip to the park where he showed his grandkids how many miles he could walk in a day.  Brad’s hobbies include University of Utah football, cooking and spending time with his family.

    Brad can be reached at bgilchrist@resource-innovations.com.

    Felipe Gomez, Field Specialist

    Felipe Gomez, Field Specialist 

    Felipe is a new field specialist in the Utah area. He brings over 10 years of experience in professional sales, account and project management to the team. He has already jumped right in to help vendors and customers navigate and maximize the incentives from the Wattsmart Business programs. One of his first projects was creating personalized leave-behind cards containing a link to the Lighting Tool Tutorial video and each specialist’s contact information (see images above and below).  

    Prior to Evergreen, Felipe was a senior account executive at Zidy.com, an account manager specialist at Acima and a business development manager at Micare Solutions. He is the founder of the Utah Latino Business Expo. In his free time, Felipe enjoys sports, traveling and collectibles. 

    Felipe can be reached at Felipe.Gomez@evergreen.energy. 

    Advanced Network Lighting Controls Recommissioning

    ANLC RxCx

    In the U.S., we have seen that some of the highest Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) adoption rates are in Utah. We would love to attribute this success to our amazing incentive offerings, but there are also other factors.

    • People in Utah love the outdoors, so they have a strong desire for conservation and taking care of their environment.
    • Utah is also home to the Silicone Slopes area and a general love for technology. That is evident by the number of lighting control companies headquartered in the state, offering local support for projects using this groundbreaking technology.

    As a result, many NLCs that were commissioned years ago probably need a checkup. Our programs include the word “Advanced” to Networked Lighting Controls and generally refer to them as ANLCs. That is not just to be clever; it represents a superior system set to maximize savings. In the case of older ANLC projects, the “Advanced” term might be dropping off as commissioning gets out of date or sensors fail with time. That is why we created the Advanced Networked Lighting Controls Recommissioning (ANLC RxCx) incentive.

    Timing

    An ANLC RxCx project is eligible for incentives three years from when the project was initially completed. Pre-approval is not required. A vendor can revisit any ANLC project three years or older and offer a low-cost (or, in some cases, free)  recommissioning of the controls system. The incentive on these is quite lucrative and will likely cap at 70-100% of eligible costs, depending on the full project scope.

    70% cost cap

    If the recommissioning space would benefit from other lighting upgrades, this project would fall into the 70% cost cap category. Although the customer will have a co-pay, they can change out some of those lights that weren’t in the original scope. Because incentives carry over from the ANLC RxCx portion to the retrofit part of the project, it can make an area with less savings look attractive due to the increased incentives. This is a great option when there is the potential for additional scope to the project.

    100% cost cap

    Projects limited to only ANLC RxCx measures have a 100% cost cap. If anything more than RxCx is added to the lighting tool, it will revert to a 70% cost cap calculation. This may include any eligible cost related to the ANLC RxCx project.

    Eligible costs

    Although each project is unique , here is the list of items we expect to encounter on an invoice.

    • Time billed for the recommissioning agent
    • Reasonable travel costs (if out of territory)
    • Labor hours to replace failed equipment
    • Material costs for failed equipment if the manufacturer warranty period has passed (five-year minimum for DLC)

    In all other cases, you must confirm with our staff before starting your project to ensure those costs are eligible.

    Our team is working to make this process as simple as possible. We maintain a list of eligible projects by vendor and can provide this list at any time. To facilitate the process, we are working on importing previous lighting tools to get that portion done in advance.

    The best part about this measure is that it can be repeated every three years. We recommend setting a calendar reminder to contact your customer to make sure their system is still working at 100%. While in touch, see what other projects they may have for you.

    Incentives for Smart Engine Block Heater Controllers 

    They Are Here!  Smart Engine Block Heater Controllers Incentives 

    In cold weather, diesel motors can struggle to start up in the morning. Many motors come with block heaters that use electricity from the grid to preheat the motor for an easier start. Out of habit, many customers plug in the heaters in the evening and let them run all night so that the motor is warm by the morning. This practice is wasteful because these heaters run unnecessarily long, each using several hundred watts. Ideally, heaters only need a few hours, at most, to preheat a motor.

    Next, basic timers were added to the block heaters and considered an energy efficiency measure. They did allow warmers only to run just before they were needed. This practice became common, so it was removed from the incentive offering.

    Since several new smart controls have become available for engine block heaters, we’ve had many customers ask about incentives. As a result, a new measure has been created for 2023.

    These smart controllers are superior because they use variables such as ambient temperature. Using ambient temperature helps to reduce block warmer run times. When setting preheat times using a block timer alone, you are forced to plan for the worst-case scenario. These smart controllers dynamically adjust schedules to be the most efficient.  

    Now, a set dollar amount can be requested through a post-purchase application. It will mirror the current residential offering with a similar qualified product list and eligibility requirements.

    Please contact your outreach specialist if you have any customers you feel might be a good fit for this new measure.  

    This brief video shows the ease of installation and explains the benefits of an engine block heater controller.