Energy Watch Partnerships

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PG&E partners with cities, counties and government agencies to form Energy Watch partnerships. The Energy Watch programs assist local governments with energy management in the following areas:

• Increasing energy efficiency of government-owned and operated facilities
• Providing a delivery channel for energy efficiency services to the community
• Leading the community in developing plans to create a more sustainable living environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating green jobs and increasing renewable energy options

The Benefit of Local Partnerships

Government-Owned and Operated Facilities

Energy Watch partnerships play an important role in retrofitting municipal facilities to achieve short-term, long-term, and peak energy savings. While all local governments have access to PG&E’s programs and incentives to save energy, PG&E’s Energy Watch programs work closely with the local governments to foster government facilities’ energy savings and to place these projects in the context of sustainability and climate change initiatives. PG&E provides incentives, tools and technical assistance that support and empower our partners in their efforts. Approaching efficiency in government facilities in this way not only achieves energy savings, it also demonstrates a commitment to energy efficiency to the local government’s constituents and the community at large.

Delivery Channel to the Community

Energy Watch partnerships provide a central point for PG&E’s wide array of energy efficiency programs serving single family and multi-family residents and small businesses. Most partnerships work directly with the community to provide free energy analysis to residential and small business customers. Qualifying customers may also receive the free installation of energy-efficient measures.
In an effort to provide greater service to residential customers, PG&E’s Low Income Energy Efficiency (LIEE) and Energy Watch programs are developing a pilot program to provide energy efficiency measures to moderate income residents. The pilot program will be rolled out with select Energy Watch programs and expanded to additional partnerships over the next year.
Partnerships can also provide energy clinics and classes designed specifically for local residents and businesses. Through these free training opportunities, residential and business customers can receive suggestions for reducing energy bills and becoming more energy-efficient.

Community Leadership

By engaging in partnership with PG&E, partnering organizations demonstrate their commitment to taking action with measurable results. Energy efficiency improvements to their own facilities are tangible examples that motivate their communities to act. Additionally, many Energy Watch partnerships strive to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase renewable energy usage, protect air quality, create green jobs and create a more livable and sustainable community.

Services to Save Energy

Services typically offered through Energy Watch partnerships include:

• Energy efficiency audits, retrofits and retro-commissioning of existing municipal building
• Energy efficiency design assistance for new municipal buildings
• Specialized energy efficiency marketing and outreach to each local community
• Installation of single family and multi-family residential energy efficiency measures
• Installation of small businesses energy efficiency measures
• Tools for Green House Gas (GHG) reduction planning
• Local energy efficiency seminars
• Vendor and subcontractor training and education

With a focus on long-term benefits, the Energy Watch partnerships offer the opportunity to build a lasting local energy infrastructure where the framework for development is linked to customers' needs and future energy demands. In partnership, we achieve more than either cities, counties, agencies or PG&E can do alone.

By focusing on energy efficiency, communities benefit through reduced energy use and lower energy bills; in addition, their efforts benefit the environment and help PG&E manage energy costs and reliability for everyone.

Existing 2009 Energy Watch Partnerships

Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG)
City of San Joaquin
East Bay
Fresno
Kern County
Madera
Marin
Mendocino
Merced/Atwater
Redwood Coast
San Francisco
San Mateo
San Joaquin
San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara
Sierra Nevada formerly Motherlode
Silicon Valley
Sonoma

Statewide Partnerships

PG&E, along with Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas, also has partnerships with four statewide institutions:

• University of California and California State Universities
• California Community Colleges
• California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
• California Department of General Services

These partnerships operate on a statewide, integrated basis to support:

• Energy efficiency retrofits
• New construction assistance, including design review, development of design guidelines and equipment specification standards, and incentives for installing energy efficiency measures in new construction
• Monitoring-based commissioning of new buildings to ensure that all energy systems operate at optimum levels
• Comprehensive energy education, best practices and information exchange among the facility energy managers, project managers, facility staffs, and utilities

Spreading Success through the Partnership Network

By collaborating with local municipalities, colleges and universities, PG&E is helping foster energy best practices. Energy program achievements are measured, and the lessons learned are shared among the partnerships so that successful practices can be adopted by other community agencies throughout the state.

Get Involved

If you live or operate a business in one of the partnership communities, learn more about how the Energy Watch partnership can work for you by calling the Smarter Energy Line at 1-800-933-9555 for residential customers or the Business Customer Service Center at 1-800- 468-4743 for business customers.

If there is no partnership in your community, you still have access to a wide range of energy efficiency solutions directly through PG&E.

Visit our residential rebates page or business rebates page for details about our evolving array of coordinated products and services (including rebates, incentives, education, training, energy analysis and demand response programs).