New Aims To Help Save Money On Utility Bills

By Amy Perry in News on Jun 4, 2010 9:20PM

The Citizens Utility Board created a rewards program with the potential of saving money for ComEd customers in Illinois. The successful pilot program saved users an average of $200 annually on utility bills so CUB is expanding the program with its new website which rewards users for documented reductions in their energy usage. The first 10,000 participants to sign up for the CUB Energy Saver will be eligible. The program comes at a time when ComEd customers may be seeing a hike in their bills. Earlier this month, ComEd attempted to offer the state $500 million in exchange for a four year rate increase but pulled out of the deal after receiving a lot of criticism.

CUB claims this is the first online program in the nation geared to creating a personalized energy-savings plan for users. The software, created by Efficiency 2.0, takes each account users personalized energy end-use and demographic information to determine how to best curb energy usage and build an energy-savings plan. CUB says the software mimics Amazon and Netflix by storing users profile information to recommend customized efficiency actions and purchases. As participants reduce their bills they earn points with RecycleBank that are redeemable for deals on groceries, gift cards, apparel, restaurants, and home goods through various retailers.