New Jersey Natural Gas partners with Google to help customers save money
Knowing its customers have enough to worry about during a pandemic without adding a sizable energy bill to the list, New Jersey Natural Gas partnered with Google Nest and Energy Federation Inc. to provide the Google Nest Thermostat E to its residential customers for free.
“Customers are facing higher energy bills as they are sitting at home so much more, and many are facing financial pressures from losing jobs and other unforeseen circumstances,” Anne-Marie Peracchio, director of conservation and clean energy at New Jersey Natural Gas, told American Gas. “We wondered what we could do to provide immediate savings to our customers.”
Energy Federation Inc., which runs NJNG Marketplace, routinely reaches out to customers with offers from manufacturers, and NJNG began talking with Google in April on ways to address personal energy bills, Peracchio said.
Similar customer offers had been made before, but this time, the program offering a free Nest lasted much longer—a month and a half—which meant NJNG could also promote it for a longer time and across more of its channels, such as including the offer within its newsletters and customers’ monthly heating bills.
Response was strong. Even for those who missed the July 20 deadline, the utility will continue to offer a $150 rebate. For customers who shied away from installing the user-friendly Nest themselves, the utility did it and performed an energy audit at the same time, which included other energy-savings products worth more than the $49 cost of the home energy assessment.
The Nest automatically programs itself and creates a schedule based on user habits and preferences, and customers can manage it remotely with an app on their phone. The Nest can also remind customers when it’s time to replace a dirty filter, another money-saving move, Peracchio said.
Users save an average of up to 15% on cooling costs and up to 12% on heating costs, according to Google.
The offer is part of NJNG’s SAVEGREEN Project®, through which the utility has voluntarily offered energy efficiency rebates and incentives since 2009.
“Energy efficiency has been part of our culture for a long time. [That] includes special offers for smart thermostats, programs that help low-income customers and educational programs we run in the schools,” Peracchio said. “It aligns the interest of our company, customers and public policy.”
NJNG’s average customer gas consumption is down 12% since 2006, and the utility has set a goal to reduce its operational emissions by 50% by 2030.