Thomas J. Madden, Chairman and CEO, Transmedia Group

1)   Did you know that If you live in 1 of the 16 deregulated states, you don’t have to pay the utilities rate? That’s right.  You have a choice!  Really?  Yes, you have a choice as to who supplies your energy!  More likely than not, you can choose a different supplier through an energy choice program that is significantly lower than the utilities price.

2)  Are plant or company’s energy bills often 10%-30% higher than they should be?  There was a church in New York for example that was paying 40% more than they should have until they hooked up with an energy broker.  Yes just like there are brokers in real estate and other industries, there are definitely brokers in energy, including leading brokers like EnergyProfessionals.  Once Energy Professionals stepped in, the church got a much better rate from a new supplier.  Was it a miracle?  No, just smart business. 

3)  Did you know states are going green! You bet.  Green is in big time. Massachusetts’s law makers, for example, just filed legislation to make Massachusetts run on 100% renewable energy by 2045.

4)  Is the cost of energy rising or falling? If you said falling, you’re in the running for a brand new Tesla, that is if you afford one.  But you’re right!  Renewable energy is getting cheaper!  In 2018, the price of large-scale solar PV fell by 13%, and the price of onshore wind fell by 7%.  This is making those alternative energy sources a competitive and cleaner option than traditional energy.

5)  How does renewable energy improve power grid reliability? Unlike conventional sources of energy which tend to put all their eggs in one basket, green energy, like solar and wind power, are spread out over a larger area and made up of multiple units of equipment.  This way they are decidedly less likely to fail due to severe weather, since they’re not located in one spot. Where traditional power sources may fail, green energy sources being far less concentrated can pick up the slack from different areas where they’re spread out.

6)  How does Solar Power add to the value of your home? Unlike a kitchen remodeling or adding a spare room to your home, solar panels reduce your energy bills and continue generating value. Forbes found that, on average, homeowners who installed rooftop solar systems recovered approximately 97% of the initial investment, while remodeling a kitchen generally only nets 60%. So you’ll be happily singing that new Italian song . . . O Solar Mio

7)  You know about LED lightbulbs and that they cut energy use. But do you know by how much?

They’re the light-emitting diodes, a type of solid-state lighting system that uses a semiconductor to convert electricity into light.  But do you know that today’s LED bulbs can be eight times more energy efficient than regular incandescent lights and cut energy use by more than 80 percent?

8)  Did you know homeowners have the same options as fortune 500 companies when it comes to monitoring their energy usage? New technologies like smart thermostats and e-meters not only alert homeowners when an appliance is wasting energy, but automatically turn down their consumption when electricity prices are rising.  How about that?

9)  Polar Vortex’s like the one the Midwest is experiencing right now cause the prices of energy to skyrocket. Did you know you can protect your business or home by locking in a multi-year, fixed rate energy contract to protect you from weather events that put a dent in your budget?

10) And finally, did you know that you can sell your unused energy back to the grid through something called Demand Response? That’s right.  Demand response offers energy consumers a unique opportunity to reward operational efficiency and reliability in their systems by selling back supplementary or curtailed energy to the grid, promoting grid stabilization during times of peak demand, volatility, or outages.  Now what do you know about that!

Champ or Chump?

So how many of the 10 facts about energy did you know?  Be honest!  Those who got all 10 right are Energy Champs.   If you missed five or more, I’m sorry, but you’re an Energy Chump and you need to get more Energy Educated.   Thanks to the Experts at EnergyProfessionals Who Opened My Eyes.