Yahoo Finance Sempra's (SRE) Unit Ups Rebate on Energy Efficient Appliances
Sempra Energy’s SRE subsidiary Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) recently increased rebates by an additional 50% on the usage of energy efficient appliances under its rebate program through Dec 31, 2020. This will not only reduce customer’s bills but also help the company conserving energy and attract customers.
Per the company, customers can apply for rebates up to $600 on select water heaters and furnaces, up to $500 on select fireplaces and $50 on select smart thermostats and Energy Star natural gas dryers. Notably, the rebates will be funded through energy efficiency incentive programs organized by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Need for Rebates
With the ongoing pandemic, customers are facing financial difficulty in meeting their bills. Hence, a decrease in energy bills through usage of efficient appliances will be a blessing for them. Also, this move will help the company lure customers as the reduction in bill is a lucrative offer from the company amid the prevalent economic distress. In addition to rebates, SoCalGas proposes a wide range of other programs and services to lower customer's utility bills.
SoCalGas’ Efforts to Boost Renewable Energy Generation
SoCalGas has a vision to become the cleanest gas utility in North America along with delivering affordable renewable energy to its customers. In line with this, SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20% of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable gas by 2030.
Moreover, between 2015 and 2019, SoCalGas energy efficiency programs helped customers curb greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1,100,000 metric tons, the equivalent of removing nearly 238,000 cars from the road annually. These advances also helped SoCalGas customers save costs worth $229 million in natural gas bill. In 2019, SoCalGas' energy efficiency programs saved customers $55.6 million.
SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers. From 2014 through 2018, the company pumped $6.5 billion into business to upgrade and modernize its pipeline system for enhancing safety and reliability. For the 2020-2024 period, the parent company expects to make investments worth $9 billion in SoCalGas to rapidly modernize its electric transmission lines and substation infrastructure.
Recently, SoCalGas was awarded more than $7.1 million as funding for three projects to advance the clean automotive transportation technologies supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The projects will develop fuel cell technology for on-road trucking and transit, natural gas technology with near-zero emissions for rail locomotives and best practices to lower maintenance costs for alternative fuel vehicles.
Apart from Sempra Energy’s unit, companies like Ballard Power Systems BLDP, Plug Power, Inc. PLUG and FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL are using fuel cell technology to deliver clean energy.
Zacks Rank & Price Performance
The stock currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
In the past six months, shares of the company have gained 13.3%, outperforming the industry’s 4.9% rise.
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