Inclusive Financing


Essential reading:

  • Introduction to Inclusive Financing webinar (Source: Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance)
    The introduction to a comprehensive, 8-part webinar series on establishing a PAYS® program. The overall series provides a solid grounding in the basics of inclusive finance.

  • Pay As You Save, a 90 second video (Source: Appalachian Voices / Resource Media)
    What if your home could be fixed up so that you’re cool in the middle of summer, warm in winter, and you have more money every year for things you need? So begins a new 90-second video explaining a simple way to pay for home energy efficiency improvements. Simple in concept, that is, but a bit more complex in the details.

  • Roanoke Electric's insights and experience with offering a PAYS® program (Roanoke Electric Co-op)
    In the spirit of “cooperation among cooperatives,” Roanoke Electric offers their experience and unique resources regarding their Upgrade to $ave inclusive on-bill financing program. Roanoke lays out the road map on how to build a PAYS program, including briefings, webinars, an open letter from CEO Curtis Wynn, and a decision tool for utility managers exploring this path.

  • Ouachita Electric's HELP PAYS® program intro (Source: Ouachita Electric Co-op)
    Ouachita Electric’s HELP PAYS® on-bill program has essential resources for inclusive financing advocates, including a video, powerpoint presentation, and program update report. That report, “Opening Opportunities with Inclusive Financing for Energy Efficiency,” offers a detailed analysis of the first year of the program, laying out findings on participation, impacts, investments, types of improvements, market segmentation, energy savings, and cost recovery. Related video

  • Inclusive Financing for Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Source: Institute for Local Self-Reliance)
    Utilities can knock down major barriers to energy efficiency and renewables by allowing customers to make site-specific investments and recovering utility costs through an opt-in tariff. Tariffed on-bill programs are often referred to as inclusive financing because they allow all utility customers the option to access cost effective upgrades. Unlike loan-based programs, tariffed on-bill programs are open to all customers regardless of their income, credit score, or renter status. The best loan-based energy efficiency programs serve less than 2% of customers each year, and few reach the majority of a utility’s customers, including renters, customers without strong credit, and low- and moderate-income households, who pay disproportionately high energy bills.

  • Department of Energy Issue Brief on Tariffed On-Bill Programs
    As part of its Clean Energy for Low Income Communities Accelerator (CELICA), the U.S. Department of Energy released this Issue Brief on utility investment programs with site-specific investments and site-specific cost recovery.

Suggested reading:

  • Ensuring Your Rural Electric Co-op Works for You: Energy Efficiency (Source: Resource Media)
    Slick 2-page handout about inclusive financing at rural electric co-ops with impact stories from 3 RECs who have implements these programs.

  • The Utility Guide to Tariffed On-Bill Programs (Source: SEEA, 2020)
    This critical resource for all utility executives considering tariffed on-bill finance was developed by a working group of experts to produce accurate and credible guidance informed by field experience for an audience of decision makers seeking investment opportunities for utilities that add value to customers and accelerate investments at the grid edge for efficiency, electrification, resilience, and much more.

  • Inclusive Financing Learning Circle Series: Update on Inclusive Financing Programs in the South (Source: SEEA)
    Part two of the comprehensive, 8-part webinar series on establishing a PAYS program. Leading program operators who are managing multi-million dollar efficiency investment portfolios in areas of the South that are affected by persistent poverty discuss the state of inclusive financing in the South.

  • Comparing PAYS, On-Bill Loans and PACE (Source: Clean Energy Works)
    Chart displaying differences between loan and PACE-based programs and PAYS-based programs for financing energy efficiency programs

  • NCSEA Story of Energy Burden Solutions (Source: North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association)
    NCSEA highlights the impact of Roanoke Electric’s work to reduce energy burden starting with energy efficiency upgrades based on PAYS.

  • “What is inclusive financing for energy efficiency, and why are some of the largest states in the country calling for it now?” 2-page summary or full report (Source: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy)
    Presented at the ACEEE Summer Study in 2018, this paper provides an overview of performance for all PAYS-based energy efficiency programs offered by utilities, including performance data for all existing programs where available.

  • Utility investment vs. consumer loans: Getting to yes on energy efficiency through inclusive financing for all Presented at ACEEE’s Behavior Energy and Climate Change (BECC) conference in 2019, this paper written by Holmes Hummel & Max Toth of Clean Energy Works explores the barrier-clearing impact of utilities offering an inclusive program for energy efficiency. Appendix provides an update to utility performance data for all existing PAYS-based programs. Slides from the presentation available here.

  • Pay As You Save for Rural Electric Customers (Source: Northern Plains Resource Council)
    Tammy Agard of program operator EEtility gave a 2018 keynote address and webinar on inclusive financing for Montana electric co-ops hosted by Northern Plains Resource Council. You can view the webinar here.

  • OBF Resource Chart
    This chart was created to give folks an idea of who the resources in this section are targeted for (campaigners or member-owners) and what type of resources they are (inspirational or informational).

  • With No Upfront Costs, This Innovative Financing Tool Makes Energy Efficiency Affordable To All (Source: Ensia, Nate Berg, 2/26/19)
    Article on Roanoke’s Upgrade to $ave program which lays out the benefits and impacts of their approach to reducing energy burden and opening the clean energy economy to all

Supplementary reading:

  • Federal Financing Options for On-Bill Energy Efficiency Programs (Source: Environmental and Energy Study Institute)
    An overview of existing and pending federal programs that are available to eligible rural electricity providers for the purpose of developing and funding commercial and residential energy efficiency loan programs. The three programs, each offered (or expected to be offered) by the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, are the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan Program, Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program, and Rural Energy Savings Program.

  • Domestic Energy Access Stories: North Carolina (Source: Duke University)
    Video introduction to Roanoke Energy Cooperative's Upgrade to $ave on-bill financing program.

  • NCSEA Energy Reserve Fund
    NCSEA established an Energy Reserve Fund for utilities to use to mitigate the perceived risk to site-specific investments made by utilities using a PAYS-based program. The fund is now being used by utilities in three states.

  • Benham $aves program in Harlan County, KY, a video (Source: Kertis Creative, KFTC)
    The mountain community of Benham, Kentucky received a healthy dose of national attention recently when the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum announced it has installed solar panels to save thousands of dollars annually on its power bill. This good news story is just one part of a larger story about how the Harlan County community, which was built as a coal camp by International Harvester, is now leading the way towards a Just Transition to a clean energy economy in Kentucky. This powerful new video tells another piece of Benham's clean energy story: How the town helps residents save money through energy efficiency.

  • Lights Out In the Cold: NAACP report on energy burden on African American communities (Source: NAACP)
    This report from the NAACP highlights how utility company shut off policies disproportionately impact low-income and African American communities, literally leaving thousands in the dark, stranded in the cold during winter or severely impacted by sweltering summer temperatures. The report issued by the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program (ECJP) shows lower income communities spend a greater portion of income on electricity and heating costs than high-income communities. African Americans are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-African Americans and spend a significantly higher fraction of their household income on electricity and heating as non-African Americans.

  • Pay As You Save (PAYS) (Source: Clean Energy Works)
    Pay As You Save® (PAYS®) harnesses a proven utility investment model to offer virtually all consumers cost-effective energy building upgrades.

  • Q&A: inclusive financing for building energy upgrades (Source: Clean Energy Works)
    Find news and A-Z information on inclusive finance using PAYS.

  • NRECA monthly newsletter article on How$mart KY (Source: NRECA / KY)

    The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association shines a spotlight in their monthly newsletter on How$mart Kentucky, a program based on inclusive financing.

  • SEEA Webinar Series: Inclusive Financing for Energy Efficiency

    Topics include: Introduction to Inclusive Financing for Energy Efficiency, Update on Existing Programs, Consumer Protections in Inclusive Financing for Energy Efficiency, Due diligence with the Decision Tool for Utility Managers, Exploring Program Operator models, Establishing a Reserve Fund for tariffed on-bill EE programs, Sourcing capital for a Tariffed On-Bill investment program and Jobs: Workforce development in rapidly expanding EE markets