ConnectionsJanuary 2018 Cover Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Tips for Managing Cold Twin Falls Students Become Idaho State Tackles Energy A Fun Recipe for Weather and Winter Bills Linemen for a Day Efficiency at Holt Arena Wintertime Parties Customer Focused Idaho Power trusted energy advisor Rudy Beltran is dedicated to helping customers use energy wisely in their homes. Knowledge is Power When it Comes to Managing Energy Use Idaho Power employees and online homes more efficient. “Everyone has a different story, and tools help customers lower their “I’ve met some really wonderful everyone has different habits. We take winter energy bills. customers,” Beltran said. “I take pride the time to help them work through how to be as efficient as possible,” Beltran Idaho Power Customer Representative in helping them. Customers invite explained. Rudy Beltran has spent the last 17 years us into their homes, so we take that supporting Idaho Power customers. trust seriously. Making that personal Beltran has a long list of tips he suggests First on the phone from our Customer connection can make all the difference.” to customers interested in changing Service Center, and for the last nine Idaho Power’s Customer Service Center their behaviors to save energy, but his years as a customer representative does a great job of helping customers top tip is to register for My Account. My in Nampa and the surrounding area. over the phone, but 15 customer Account is Idaho Power’s online tool Beltran supports both residential and representatives throughout our service that allows you to pay your bill, monitor commercial customers, but he spends area are available to assist customers your usage and sign up for programs most of the winter working individually who could benefit from a personal visit like Paperless Billing and Auto Pay. with residential customers to review high to explore opportunities to save energy. Beltran recommends customers become winter usage and ways to make their (continued on page 2) Like us at facebook.com/idahopower • Follow us at twitter.com/idahopower (@idahopower) • Watch us on youtube.com/idahopower News Feed Knowledge is Power (continued from page 1) News Feed familiar with the hourly usage, In addition to helping customers Idaho Power Launches monthly usage and weather make behavioral changes, New Website and energy charts available on customer representatives like My Account. These tools help Beltran are always looking for Idaho Power unveiled a brand-new website customers understand how inefficient or faulty electrical late in 2017. The new idahopower.com is more their usage changes day to day equipment, old windows, low or streamlined and customer friendly than ever, and month to month, as well as no insulation and other efficiency with an optimized user experience for every how outside forces like extreme offenders, like leaky water heaters device and a variety of features designed to temperatures impact how much or air escaping through doors or help customers quickly and easily find the energy they use. windows. information they are looking for. Whether you want to pay your bill online, set up a new To see how behavioral changes “Once, while visiting a customer, I account, view outage information, find energy like lowering your thermostat could hear water leaking through savings tips or check out our social media from 72 to 68 can impact your the wall I was standing next to, channels, you are only a click away. usage, Beltran asks customers to but the customer had no idea. So give it a try for at least a couple I took a look in the crawl space, idahopower.com days — long enough for My and it was a leaky hot water heater. Account to provide data on how The customer was able to have her much of a change it can make. water heater fixed, which solved “Customers can use My Account her high-usage problem.” to see the 2 to 3 percent energy To prepare your home for Twin Falls Students Become savings for each degree they extreme weather, Beltran Lineworkers for a Day lowered their thermostat. If they recommends visiting My Account see an impact, they may be more at idahopower.com year-round willing to commit to the change, for home energy tips and as well as try additional ways information. Using My Account to bring their usage down even can help you identify areas in your more,” he said. home that could benefit from an From computers at school to TVs and smartphones at home, high schoolers rely on electricity 24/7. But does the average teenager know how energy is produced and distributed? Thanks to the Magic Valley Student Leadership Daily Energy Use Sep. 15 - Dec. 2 program, more than 20 high school juniors got a firsthand look at the work Idaho Power does to keep them plugged in. Students visited the Twin Falls training yard for an “Infrastructure Day” organized by Community Education Representative Liz Haugee and the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce. The teens took part in a variety of hands-on stations, which included climbing a power pole, touring a substation and Idaho Power’s My Account tool allows riding in the 150-foot-high Condor bucket truck. customers to track monthly, daily and Check out their adventure on the Idaho Power even hourly energy use. The graph YouTube channel! at right shows one customer’s daily usage (in teal) compared to average youtube.com/idahopower temperature highs (red) and lows (green). 2 efficiency upgrade or other low- sticker shock from your bill,” Lights, Camera, cost and no-cost changes. Idaho Beltran said. Football! Power offers incentives for many But Beltran said it’s easy for residential upgrades. customers to understand why Regardless of your home’s their heat has been running 24/7 efficiency or your energy-saving when there is still three feet of habits, winter bills are likely snow outside. It’s when we don’t to be higher due to furnaces remember how cold it was, or compensating for the cold what we were doing to have such weather, more time spent indoors, high use, that high bills catch us lights left on longer, holiday lights by surprise. That’s why regular and appliances working overtime use of My Account is helpful to to bake our Thanksgiving turkeys preventing surprises. There’s even or Christmas cookies. a tool that can forecast how much Idaho Power Tackles Energy Efficiency The holidays are a great time to your next bill may be based on Upgrade at Pocatello’s Holt Arena use My Account to track your how much energy you’ve already Football is one of Idaho’s favorite pastimes. energy use. Log in after hosting used that month. Every weekend, thousands of fans across family, or being gone for a few Idaho Power works hard to ensure Idaho Power’s service area pack high school days, to see how it impacted your our customers understand their and college stadiums to cheer on their favorite use. Chances are you’ll see a electrical use, how to save energy teams. Christy Meyer significant difference! and how to make smart decisions From tailgate parties to highlight-reel “Last winter, we saw a lot of about energy efficiency for their touchdowns, there are many reasons we love customers learning about winter homes. To learn more about football. And with stadium lights, scoreboards usage after receiving a high bill. saving energy, or to sign up for My and concession stands to power, electricity With the weather so bad, many Account, visit our website. plays a key role in bringing the games to life. customers doubled their regular idahopower.com/myaccount This fall, Idaho Power worked with Idaho State use, and that can definitely mean University (ISU) on a major energy efficiency upgrade at Holt Arena, home of the Bengals football team. The project replaced hundreds of metal halide and incandescent fixtures with 76 LED lights. Overall, the upgrade saves ISU more than 1.1 million annual kilowatt-hours (kWh) — enough energy to power 102 average-sized homes for an entire year. “Football games do require a lot of electricity,” said Chellie Jensen, a Senior Engineer with Idaho Power’s Commercial and Industrial Energy Efficiency team. “Not only did [ISU] drop half the wattage per fixture, but they also were able to use less than half the number of Daily Energy Use Sep. 15 - Dec. 2 fixtures. That resulted in an 80 percent lighting energy savings, which is a great project, both for us and the customer.” Idaho Power Major Customer Representative Buzz Pfeiffer joined regional managers Bo Hanchey and Steven Muse in Pocatello to present ISU President Arthur Vailas with a $219,118 incentive check for the Holt Arena retrofit. “ISU really likes the idea of partnering with community entities, and most of the use of Holt Arena is through the community,” Vailas said. “We are very grateful for our relationship with [Idaho Power], and for this check.” (continued on page 4) 3 Lights, Camera, Football (continued from page 3) Community partnerships are important to Idaho Power, too. In addition to saving money for the participating business, energy efficiency projects help keep costs down for all Idaho Power customers. “We’re able to offer an incentive that helps pay the project cost,” Pfeiffer said. “In return, it keeps costs down for the university, but it also keeps our overall rates lower. So it’s a win–win for Idaho Power, it’s a win–win for Idaho State idahopower.com/ University and for our customers in general.” ISU was happy to join the list of football- related energy efficiency projects Idaho Power has contributed to over the past decade.