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Politics & Government

City Light's Powerful Neighborhoods Program Earns Kudos

Program installs free compact fluorescent light bulbs, distributes low-flow showerheads in Shoreline and other areas

Seattle City Light’s Powerful Neighborhoods program is earning high marks from the thousands of customers the utility's Powerful Neighborhoods program has helped to reduce energy consumptioin and save money. 

Shoreline was the most recent community served by the program that installs free compact fluorescent light bulbs and distributes low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators. Of the nearly 700 Shoreline participants who completed a follow-up survey, 96 percent said they would definitely recommend the program to their neighbors and friends.

Customers comments include "Wonderful Program", “It's a wonderful program to help people save energy and do it right now without any more waiting and delay", and "Staff members were very professional and well-informed. I already recommended the program to others."

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“Powerful Neighborhoods helps our customers take some easy steps that will significantly reduce their energy use and cut their electricity bills,” Conservation Resources Director Glenn Atwood said. “The enthusiastic response helps reduce the pressure to acquire new energy resources to meet customer demand. That’s how Seattle City Light is building a conservation power plant one person at a time.”

Powerful Neighborhoods has installed about 318,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs and distributed about 7,800 efficient showerheads in nearly 16,000 households in Shoreline, the Central District, South Park, South Seattle, West Seattle,  unincorporated King County, Burien and Tukwila. 

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These measures will save nearly 12 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That means a savings of more than $1 million on participants’ electric bills each year, or $63 per household.  And it’s enough electricity saved each year to meet the needs of 1,300 Seattle area households.

Installers recently started working door-to-door in North Seattle.

Seattle City Light is working with Ecos ConsultingCascadia Consultingthe Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS), and Working Green, to hire and train installers, schedule home visits, and deliver and install the products.

All installers undergo background checks and drug-screening. Installers fluent in more than a dozen languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Amharic and Cantonese, are available to visit homes where English is not the primary language. All staff carry Seattle City Light identification. Short profiles and photos of all installers can be seen at www.Seattle.gov/light/install.

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.

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