“NEEA was created to encourage energy-efficient products and services throughout the region,” said Susan Hermenet, NEEA Interim Executive Director. “The Board has continually tried to provide a balance in programs, reach and resources. It isn’t always easy, given the differences in markets, but it is what the region values.”

Market penetration and market share of new energy efficiency products and services may be easier in more densely populated areas. Lower distribution costs, broader reach of advertising and promotion, and typically larger utility partner staff all help. Yet NEEA seeks opportunities for energy savings in less populated areas too so that the whole region is looked after.

NEEA’s implementation strategy of the compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) market is an example. Following the 2006 “Savings with a Twist” campaign when 10.6 million CFLs reached the marketplace, the 2007 campaign was designed especially to better reach non-urban areas. For starters, the campaign focused on distribution channels beyond big box stores not typically found in smaller markets, and added grocery and hardware stores.

“The 2007 campaign focused on the rural market place,” said Brian Simmons, Fluid Market Strategies of Portland, a NEEA contractor.  “We changed the program to the national “Change a Light” campaign because recognition of ENERGY STAR® was high in these areas. That allowed us to leverage resources.”

Simmons said the campaign also increased the number of utilities participating from 40 to about 60. The campaign encouraged utilities, retailers and manufacturers to assume activities initially done by NEEA, such as field merchandising. Eight utilities, primarily in non-urban areas, took on that role and received an incentive for their efforts.

“Having that option was beneficial to us,” said Deb Young, program manager with Montana’s NorthWestern Energy, a utility participant. “Without someone who knows the local markets who called on retailers it would have been easy for CFLs to fall through the cracks.”

Simmons said Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes is another program that has been successful beyond the I-5 corridor, having doubled the number of homes certified in Montana and signing 100% of the builders in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas.

“If you look back at the successful programs that took place in the region, small utilities took ownership of that program and helped drive it forward,” Simmons said. “Larger markets are going to happen because of volume. Smaller markets have the opportunity to shift the paradigm and drive activities, such as how residential construction happens in the Northwest.”

Young agrees that a utility’s involvement is an important part of a program’s success in its own service territory.

“I encourage all utilities to become familiar with NEEA initiatives and work to get those benefits into their markets,” she said. “NEEA can deliver many things that would be difficult and not very cost-effective for a utility to do on its own, such as having mass buying power or having relationships with manufacturers and national retailers.”

Brian Crumine, a consultant with NEEA’s industrial initiative, has found the challenges facing food processors cross urban-rural boundaries. His firm, Strategic Energy Group, is working with Norpac Foods in Hermiston, OR, to create a Continuous Energy Improvement program (CEI), after initiating CEI at a Norpac plant near Salem.

“They are struggling with the same issues. They need crops, raw materials and energy – all things that are increasing [in demand],” he said. “We need to help them – urban or rural – address their energy goals to become productive and energy efficient so they’ll be successful long-term.”

In this case too, the local utility – Umatilla Electric – is partnering in the work by providing energy efficiency incentives and helping complete energy assessments at the plant.

According to Young, who sits on NEEA’s Board of Directors, NEEA must do a balancing act between the urban and less urban, smaller markets.

“The challenge is how to cultivate the initiative so that you not only transform the largest markets, but also find a way where the Lewistown, Montanas of the region and its customers can benefit too,” she said. “I believe in a regional organization to deliver market transformation, but believe we have to keep an eye on the ball to sustain that initiative with the smallest utility. We have to demonstrate to them the value of what we are doing.”