Yes, whether submitted as a Prescriptive or Custom project, all LED replacement lamps and LED luminaires must be listed on the DesignLights™ Consortium or ENERGY STAR® Qualified Products list.
Business Solutions FAQ - Incentives
Yes, incentives for common LED lighting measures are available through the Business Solutions Retrofit Lighting Application. Other LED measures not included on the Application Form may be considered as Custom options.
Once a project is complete and payment is made, SMECO and the Public Service Commission require that a subset of projects be visited. This is to verify that sales transactions and equipment installations remain in accordance with the plans that were approved and upon which incentives were paid. SMECO may contact you to visit your site to perform this verification. All measures must be installed and working at the time of inspection.
Project baselines are based on currently applicable energy codes and/or conservative estimates of industry standards.
Custom incentives are based on the cost of installing the high-efficiency measures and the resulting energy and demand savings. In all cases, the high-efficiency measure must be cost-effective. For retrofit measures where the efficiency of existing equipment or systems is being improved, the incentive is up to 50% of the installed cost of the high-efficiency measure. For new construction or the purchase of new or replacement equipment, the incentive is up to 75% of the cost of the high-efficiency equipment over the standard efficiency equipment. In all cases, if the incentive results in a customer simple payback of fewer than 1.5 years, the incentive will be reduced to an amount that will result in a 1.5-year payback.
If a project involves equipment specified in a prescriptive application, that project is not eligible to be submitted as a Custom project. If a project involves both prescriptive and custom measures as an entire system, the customer may be able to combine integrated measures into a single custom application.
No. Program pre-approval is required for all projects prior to the purchase or installation of equipment in order to be eligible for incentives (noted in the Terms & Conditions on the application form).
The pre-approval letter guarantees payment of the incentives at the full amount as long as all conditions of the pre-approval letter have been met. Any change in equipment specifications, quantities installed, or other factors affecting energy savings and project costs may result in changes to the incentive amount. Any changes from the original pre-approval letter conditions must receive SMECO approval before being implemented to guarantee incentive payment.
Yes. Please indicate the payment method on the application form after the project is complete when the final paperwork is submitted.
Beginning April 1, 2018, all incentive payments for Business Solutions program participants will be made electronically or via bill credit.
No. Used or refurbished material is not eligible for incentives nor does SMECO allow equipment that is removed to be re-installed within the SMECO service territory.