 Well, good afternoon everyone welcome to tonight's event, which is energy 101 keeping the lights on my name is Tamara Warren I am the pointee of the City of Columbia's climate protection action Campaign Committee, which is CPAC and so I think we're going to have a great evening of information That's going to be shared from our community business and regulatory partners or ways in which you as our chairs residents could Actually get savings and assistance with your utility or your energy bills And so we have a full lineup and a lot of information that's going to be shared And so first up I would like to introduce you to dr. Lori Zolkowski who is the chairperson of the CPAC committee and Lori Please take it away. Hi. Thank you so much for coming tonight. Thank you for all our guests who are going to be speaking with you So I am the chairwoman of the climate protection action committee in City of Columbia and we're a group of citizen volunteers who are just interested in trying to figure out how we can help make the city better So we advise the city on how we can prepare and adapt Basically climate change or help prevent and adapt to climate change While also helping foster and improve quality of life for the citizens of Columbia So this means how can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how can we also adapt to a warmer world that might have more rainfall? So we meet a couple times a month to discuss issues related to climate change such as how we generate electricity and how we can do better How we can reduce our electricity usage and that's part of how this event happened in partnership with the state energy office We've also been exploring ways that we can figure out how to plan better Developments in the future have better transportation be it for bike for buses or in cars and So basically tonight is a way that we can all learn how to have more efficient energy usage And so that's why we wanted to just highlight the efforts of what's been going on here. So thank you very much And I hope you learn a lot tonight All right. Thank you dr. Z and so first up we're going to talk about the actual Assistance that is provided when we're looking at our energy and utility bills And the first person you're going to be able to hear from is Margaret Gibson who is the director of community services for the watery community action Incorporation so Margaret, please take it away Good evening everyone I have prepared a little presentation about Our LIHEAP program It'll just provide some information about how we do things and the basics of the program I've broken it down to what I am calling component There'll be eligibility documentation basics Direct assistance emergency crisis intervention program and just a little bit about our Application process and the frequent questions that we get So starting with eligibility You have to be a US citizen our qualified alien to qualify for LIHEAP assistance Your household must be at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines and Right now we are only providing one service per year moving on to document basics So the first thing you're going to need is an application. We have these available at our office the first 15 days of the of the month The application has to be completed by the head of household. We need a current ballot get your ID ballot means And I say current and ballot it sounds kind of duplicative But it has it cannot have been expired and the address must match the bill That you're seeking assistance with We also need proof of income for the previous 30 days for all household numbers 18 or over and of course if they're household members that are younger than 18 that get some sort or any sort of federal benefit We would need that at that information as well If you're self-employed that income verification must include Your most recent either 2020 or 2021 income tax filing that includes the Schedule C for your business We need a copy of all social security how cards for members of the household and If There's a program that we have where you can get a special benefit for a disability. We would need that documentation And of course we would need the current Utility bill that you're seeking assistance with There are two kinds of Assistance in our LIHEAP program or in LIHEAP programs across the state. The first is direct assistance This program is not an emergency assistance program That's the first thing to know it has certain targets that are seniors and persons with disabilities Households below a hundred percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which is a little lower than the overall eligibility criteria for the program of a hundred and fifty percent Households that have an energy burden and there's a calculation that we do for that children under five and In this program, you can only qualify for in a bit of between 200 to 750 dollars. We determine that by you know just The demographics of your family the next program is the emergency crisis intervention program that we shortened to ECEP You must have a documental emergency for this such as The utilities are already off Or they'll be off shortly Or even an energy burden would qualify you for this program Your the award is determined by the analysis of the bill So even though our maximum is a thousand dollars a lot of people get confused when they hear that in the community It's not that everybody gets a thousand dollars you get what you qualify by for by the analysis of the bills that we do and then our application process and Some frequently asked questions We currently accept applications the first 15 days of the month So our application process is closed for March, but it'll open back up April 1st We're hoping to change to bring back in an online process a lot of times You know when people turn in their application the first thing they want to know is when they're gonna kill something because a lot of people are in real real dire straits right now, so We like to process we we were we've tried to process all applications within 30 days When why did my application get denied? We've unfortunately denied a lot of applications and the most common cause is that you know information is Missing or incomplete after attempts to contact a person and we still don't get the documentation This comes up a lot. I was served previously and someone that was in my household was no longer there We use a client tracking system. So if we've served you oh For more than the past decade and you come up in our database If members of your household have changed then we'll need information To take that those persons out of your household Because the income qualifier is for the household. So we have to verify household members and income Can you contact my vendor to let them know what are we is working with me? Unfortunately, we do not do that anymore. We don't promise services until we have determined eligibility Can I fax or email my application? We only take applications back turned into us through the mail or one of our dropboxes and dropbox We have seven offices throughout our five county area and they can be dropped in there even while we're closed How soon can I reapply if I was denied any time as long as the application period is open and If you need rent or utility assistance a lot of people that are coming to us need both kinds of assistance Utility assistance is not dependent upon The current pandemic we serve as long as we have money to serve, but if you need rent as well Right now since our rent money is getting kind of low it would be if we could document that you were Effective by the pandemic with your income that we could do both at the same time. I Applied and was served last year. Do I need to turn in those documents? Yes All documents must be turned in with an application every time you apply for our services And That is the end. Well, thank you Margaret And so next we want to get information from a Christina Freeman who is a customer assistant manager with the million energy South Carolina Christina the floor is yours Hi, everyone. Good evening. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present this afternoon And also to share information with with the community. I'm very excited to be joining you through this virtual platform Hope that be able to provide you with some helpful information on some of the ways that Dominion has available to assist customers not only during this these uncertain times we're in right now, but Any time that one of our customers might be in need or reaching out to us for for some aid So one of the ways that Dominion Offers assistance to our customers and the community is through our customer assistance area and our customer assistance department is really an Extension of customer service. So many members of the community may be used to calling in through our contact center or Reaching out to us through our website but the customer assistance department specifically works with our most vulnerable customers those that are Income eligible for other programs such as the one that Margaret Gibson just referred to our veterans our senior citizens People with disabilities and households with energy dependent medical equipment We're a team that's dedicated to meeting the needs of all of our customers through impactful customer assistance programs in addition to value added Services which I'll be sharing with you in just a moment energy assistance as well as community outreach One of the ways that we do this is by working very closely with our community partners We maintain a very strong network of over a hundred and eighty different Private state and government agency partners as well as a lot of faith-based organizations We also like to meet our customers where they are Prior to the the pandemic we were making many in-home customer visits to meet with with members of the community who may be homebound or in need of some assistance Now that we are in the times that we're in we have had to change some of our Processes and we do that now through a virtual platform or through telephone calls as needed One of the best ways that you can connect with us out in the community is through our event calendar We do a number of community engagements Including virtual presentations like the one I'm doing this evening and our event calendar remains up to date and current on a Regular basis So I do have our website information here and we'll also be sharing that through the chat But by connecting with us through Dominion energy SC comm slash Assistance you can find all the information that I'll be sharing with you here this evening as well as our event calendar All of our programs are really designed to assist all residential customers Even though we do have a primary focus on working with with customers who may have a need above and beyond What our customer service team might be able to deliver? We offer a variety of short-term and long-term assistance options and all the programs I'm going to speak with you about this evening are free of charge Voluntary to enroll in and there's no penalty whatsoever to to opt out So might be asking well, how do we help? Well, some of the ways that customer service and customer assistance can help you is through a variety of payment arrangements So we are very committed to working with all of our customers at any time, but certainly through all of these challenging Times that many many people find themselves in and so we offer Short-term payment arrangements if you are looking to maybe extend the payment date for just a couple of days Or you need to work with us on a longer-term basis and possibly Receive an installment plan to help pay down balances that may be due During the the COVID pandemic we have actually adjusted a lot of our payment arrangements to make things even more Easy to work with us because we do understand that there's a lot of things that are happening right now financially for many customers and quite frankly many people have never needed assistance Until until now. So we're very committed to working with you One of the best ways that that we can make bills more predictable for our customers is through our budget billing plan And this is a great option for anyone on a fixed budget It does allow you to pay the same amount every month And we're happy to explain that program to you at any time either by connecting with us through our website Or reaching out to our customer contact center It's a program that works very well not only for those drawn a fixed budget, but for anyone that is looking to Just make sure that you're keeping track of monthly expenses on a regular basis For those who may be visually impaired or just needing a bill in a larger size font we do offer large print bills and Many of our customers don't don't realize that it is free of charge you can request that at any time and we provide a Bill summary in a larger size font in order to help customers We also work very closely with Relay South Carolina for anyone who might be hearing or speech impaired it's another way to connect with us and Getting to the energy assistance We work with a variety of agencies as I mentioned and also faith-based organizations That do offer assistance to customers in need that may fall outside of some of the federal programs that require income eligibility During the winter heating season, which was December 1st through March 31st. We also offer medical certificates Our white cross program is specifically designed for households that are medically dependent on electricity this is program where we Serve it use it as an early notification system So if you do have medical equipment in the home that requires electricity, we will Give you a call now to do a virtual visit Then come by and place a white seal on your meter to serve as a visual reminder to our field Representatives that someone in the home is using medical equipment and during times of major storm. We will proactively Make outbound calls to all of our white cross customers In advance so that you have an opportunity to implement your backup plan and make sure that you have Some place that you might want to go to or that you are using a backup generator for example to ensure That your medical equipment Will be available to you in the event of an outage We also offer a dedicated white cross customer line during those major storm events so that you're speaking directly with One of our customer assistance team members that can provide you information related to the outage Our energy share program recently launched last year in South Carolina It also provides year-round energy assistance for residential Dominion energy customers This program is designed to supplement the life heat program that our community action agency partners offer It's funded through two streams through our corporate contribution as well as monthly voluntary donations from employees retirees and Customers last year. I'm happy to mention that our program funding was over $885,000 in support of residential customers that were just needing some additional help with their utility bill Through our community action agencies, so you would need to reach out to them for assistance with this program Our good neighbor fund program is through Our employee referral and this is a program. We've had in place for over 38 years It actually provides temporary financial assistance for non related utility expenses so any Dominion employee in South Carolina can refer a community member To be assisted for rent or mortgage food medical bill prescription assistance or clothing Depending on the need Because funds are limited for this program and they are Funded through employee donations. The referrals do have to come through employees But last year this program assisted over 164 households throughout our service area with more than $150,000 in in aid We also contribute to the state's weatherization program Last year we provided over $75,000 in weatherization funding in order to help supplement the weatherization program to make homes more energy efficient We work closely with the Office of Economic Opportunity on partnership projects to provide energy efficiency measures for households that might be in need and also we Have our third-party notification program Which is a really good safety net for customers who may be elderly ill or even young adults just starting out for the first time Who would like to add a contact of their choosing to the account just so that if in the event that the Account becomes delinquent There's someone else that would receive notification of that that might be able to provide some assistance That third party is not responsible in any way for the bill But just adds that additional layer of safety and security for the family member or that particular household One way we do a number of Our community engagements is through virtual contactless events So throughout COVID-19 we completed almost 100 events We do a number of drive-up utility events where we are on site out in parking lots church parking lots Anywhere that that we can go to make sure that our customers are able to connect with us and are receiving information on all of the programs and services that we have available to to help Even during the pandemic last year We were able to reach over 10,000 community members through through our community outreach efforts in a safe manner Appreciate your time this afternoon. I'll be happy to answer questions Later at the end of this presentation. Thank you Thank you Christina And so now we're at the portion where we're going to talk about weatherization efforts that are provided by our different Organizations and so first we have Gerald Freeman who is an energy conservation program manager with Sorry Dominion Energy South Carolina. So Gerald the floor is yours Okay, sorry about the delay okay So i'm going to talk about our seven Residential programs that we have with Dominion Energy Those are residential programs. I'm also going to talk about one Commercial program that we have with Dominion Energy So the first program i'm going to talk about is our home energy checkup program This is our gateway program where we are able to come into customers homes and share Information about all of our residential programs But this program is a visual inspection Performed by our internal bpi certified energy experts We do a complete Home energy audit of your home We go into your crawl space. We go into your attic We look at your your heating and your cooling units We look at your Your windows and all of the things that can cause your energy usage to increase And we give you a customized report on what you can do to make your home more energy efficient This program is free of charge and one of the new things that we've added to this program Once you participate We would we used to give you five led bulbs and some water heater wrap and also and pipe insulation as well Now we have moved to actually installing these items in your home So we will install the five bulbs because we know that you want to save energy right away So we want to remove remove all of those incandescent bulbs and get you the more energy efficient led bulbs in your home And again, this particular program is free of charge and you can of course go online or call in to participate in this program The next residential program is our heating and cooling equipment Program and what we do is we incentivize you by giving you up to 500 dollars for replacing your heating and cooling equipment And replacing them with energy star qualified equipment and we give you the opportunity to choose the contractor of your choice to install the equipment and you fill out the application And you have 90 days to have that completed and sent in to get to to receive your rebate One of the things that we've added to this particular program is an incentive for electric furnaces For you to upgrade to an energy star heat pump and you can receive a 650 dollar rebate for installing an hv an air source heat pump When you have an electric furnace in your home Also, there's a 300 dollar rebate for you improving your duct work. So if you do duct insulation or duct replacement We will give you a 300 dollar rebate for doing that And another new portion of this program is Replacing your water heater with the more energy efficient heat pump water heater And we will give you a 750 dollar rebate for Replacing your old electric water heater with the new more energy efficient heat pump water heater And I spoke earlier previously about the duct work again 300 dollars for duct ceiling duct insulation duct replacement again 300 dollars for for that particular portion of your work The next program is our energy wise saving store and this is a program where we Give you lighting rebates and discounts and incentives for Purchasing led bulbs And you can save up to 70 percent off from big box stores such as loaves and wallmark By going online and purchasing with us We have all different varieties of led bulbs flame tip specialty bulbs We have dimmable led bulbs And and one of the things that we also do with the online stores. We go beyond lighting products You can get wi-fi enabled thermostats You can get advanced power strips You can get kitchen faucet aerators lighting plugs smart lighting So those are some of the things that we offer in our online lighting store And again 70 off from your big box stores if you go online and purchase with us And we talk about why lighting matters We we know that customers have a lot of lights in their homes and homes and of course if they still have If you all still have those old 60 watt and 40 watt 75 watt 100 watt bulbs you can purchase an led bulb a 9.5 led bulb that will replace a 60 watt incandescent bulb You can replace a 100 watt Incandescent bulb with a 14 watt led bulb and you're going to get the same or even better light with an led bulb And you can see the comparison here one led bulb is equal to two and a half compact fluorescent light bulbs and one One led bulb equals 25 incandescent bulbs again these led bulbs are 90 percent They're any start energy started rated up to 90 percent more effective and they can last up to 25 years Okay Our next program is our appliance recycling program And this program incentivizes customers to turn in their old inefficient Refrigerators and standalone freezers as long as they are working in standard size between 10 and and 30 cubic feet Dominion energy will come out and pick those refrigerators or freezers up free of charge And we will send you a $50 rebate for allowing us to do that and you can Have up to two refrigerators or freezers per year Next program is our home energy reports program. This program is currently suspended However, this is our bench marking program And what you do is once you sign up for this particular program It compares the usage of your home to homes that are similar to yours And what you would do is you would go into our portal and you would put in information about your home The fuel usage as far as your water heater whether it's a gas or electric The size of your home What do you heat with gas or electric? And again, we look at homes that are similar to yours And on a bi-monthly or monthly basis, we will send you a report And show you how you compare to homes that are similar to yours And you can set goals within the portal And you can track on a monthly basis by monthly basis You can track and see how your energy used to just compare to what you set your goal to use or consume on a monthly basis The program will be reinstated on in the fall of this year Okay Our neighborhood energy efficiency program. This is our low-income program And this is a program that the minion energy actually chooses neighborhoods to participate in this program And we actually increase this program to include more limited income customers And the way you qualify is we use census blocks and we use up the Point 200 of the poverty level or below And one good thing about when we look at census blocks, they can be between 200 customers to 2000 customers And if at least 50 at least at least half of these customers Are at that 200 of the poverty level If 50 qualified that means the entire block is eligible to participate in the program So Again, we want to reach out to these particular customers and install these measures So what we do and this program is free of charge We install up the 15 led bulbs. We insulate the water heaters. It's like insulate the pipes of the water heaters We install hbac filters in homes and we leave them with a year supply behind And and also provide energy efficiency education to these customers as well So we want to make sure that you get the most out of the Measures that we install in your home And and and make sure again that your your thermostats are on the right settings So again, there won't be any wasteful energy and that you can again benefit the most from what we're doing in your home A segment of our low-income program is our mobile homes project and the mobile homes projects it actually You get the same measures as you get in what we call the core program with the led bulbs the hbac filters However, with mobile homes, we go a little bit farther and install weatherization measures We install Air sealing we do duct sealing we do bellyboard repair bellyboard insulation We install wi-fi enable programmable thermostats Some of the measures that are unique to mobile homes such as reflective roof coating and again the bellyboard work We just felt that this particular segment of how of the housing stock Really can benefit from these weatherization measures. So that's a portion of our neighborhood program And again, everything we do with the neighborhood program is free of charge Our multi-family program. This is a new offering that we have And this incentivizes property owners To make their property more energy efficient And What we do is we install lighting and warning water measures hbac equipment in the common areas The office buildings the the laundry room an exercise facility And the property is only responsible for paying 25 of that cost Dominion energy will pay for 75 percent of cost if the property participates in that portion of the program Each one of their units whether they have 100 200 300 units in their property those residential units will receive led bulbs and also lighting measures like kitchen faucet aerators We do hbac filters all of those things will be installed for the residents free of charge Okay, and that's just a brochure for our multi-family program and and we solicit property to participate in this particular program small business Small business energy solutions program is a program where we Um, solicit small businesses to again make their businesses more energy efficient with lighting upgrades and refrigeration upgrades things like evaporator and and compressor controls led cooler Lighting and of course The other lighting measures such as led lamps linear lighting things of that nature for small businesses The to qualify it has to be five or more electric accounts And 350 thousand kwh or less And we do a free energy audit of your particular business And once we determine that you are a good candidate for the the particular program Dominion energy pays for 90 of the cost You as the small business customer is only responsible for 10 of the cost And that's up to $6,000 of the total project cost So those are our Programs and and you can see our website there where you can go and learn about all of our programs that Dominion energy has for our customers in our service territory And again my contact information and Dominion energies contact information Thank you Well, thank you, Gerald Gerald And so next we have sam bass with the chesterfield marlboro economic opportunity Council, he's going to share information as well. So sam. It's all yours. Okay, give me a moment Good evening behalf of the South Carolina Community Action Agency network I would like to thank you for allowing us to make you aware of the services that we provide to make homes energy efficient therefore knowing the cost of one's energy bill whether it's gas or electric Now the weather position program is designed to reduce energy costs for limited resource families just as gerrills program targets low-income families And while we when doing this we want to ensure that there's that these families are health And are healthy and in a safe environment And before home can be weatherized our home energy audit is completed A home in enjoy includes a complete assessment of the conditions of the home and takes between three and four hours to complete And this order helps identify measures that were produced the highest energy savings for the home These measures will be identified by my colleague James James hilly who will follow me Now once the order is completed the information is entered into a computer and is through this program that To a computer program and the students program that recommended energy efficient measures are identified Now once identified these measures are applied to the home Now before we go into further, let me introduce you to Misha My issue is a single mom who applied for weatherization assistance through our agency And she had many issues with our home She has so many issues in our home that her energy bill would range between $300 and $500 a month for over a period of a year at these types of bills are What was really even into her already strained type budget So we We went and we did an audit on our home and the order identified not one not five not 10 but 15 issues that she had That was causing our energy to build energy bill to range between 500 300 and 500 dollars Now after these measures were applied her energy bills were lowered by 30 to 50 percent So if you're experiencing high energy bills Contact the community action agency in your county and apply for the weatherization systems So that you can lower your energy bill And before I like to mention this That there are seven community action agencies Providing these services to all 46 counties in South Carolina so look uh In your directory or call your local community action agency and if you're interested in getting your Energy bills lowered. Please contact them because it will Have make able to be able to spend money's where you needed them For more essential items like health care couldn't more food on the table or pan another bill So with this, uh, this is just a brief overview Dane's healing my colleague will Uh, present to you some of the Measures that we apply to lower people's energy bill. Mr. Healy Healy Thank you, mr. Bass. Good evening everyone I am going to continue The discussion on Weatherization and some of the measures that we Install and I have a short power point presentation that If technology works right and we want to try to Get up and going Okay, my technology is giving me a problem James, are you not able to share your screen? Yeah, it was sharing before we started but of course now It won't share. Um Let me try one more time It's locked up for some reason. Um, but I'll just talk to you all through it. Um realization assistant program I'm the program manager here at Chesterville Marbury. You'll see we um our mission is to Like mr. Bass say reduce the energy costs of low-income families, particularly elderly and people with disabilities and children while ensuring they have in safety Um, as with all federal programs, we have income guidelines and our income guideline is 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines Um, which is good. So it makes more households eligible um We have to have a priority system to ensure that the people with the most need Are served and we have um five categories. We have disabled elderly households with children a 17 and under High-energy burdens and our energy uses each category gets 20 points and um, so some of our households, um Have a total of 100 points and Those are our priority. We try to serve those people um First if we can get to them um All houses go through an energy audit. Um before we do anything just as the bass said, um And doing this audit um We check the current condition at home. It says it takes about a couple hours for us to uh Several hours for us to do it. Um We determine what energy conservation measures that can be used to reduce the home's energy use energy usage And a home cannot be weatherized If it has not been assessed um During the audit we conduct audit and that comprises of a visual and we do diagnostic testing For the whole house as a system. Um, we examine the building shell the heating and cooling system the appliances We test the combustion appliances for safety and efficiency. We determine The existing insulation levels Measure for air leakage and we meter The electrical appliances especially the refrigerators because they are a Big user that's one of the baseloads on all houses and it's a big use of electricity Um, we evaluate from for moisture and other health hazards We interview the residents about their usage and uh, you know, the trouble areas that it may be concerned with um in the home We Conduct what we call a blower door test and it's our main diagnostic tool We use the information we get from the blower door test to determine How leaky the house is and how much um How many measures and things that we can do to the house the blowdoor is the key to the whole To the whole audit If there are some conditions some conditions in the house that um May not warrant that we can't um do the house because of maybe some health and safety issues or Some other things that may be going on. We have to defer the house We don't Defer it for good. We postpone it Our deferral doesn't mean that we don't get around to it But we have to postpone it until the things can be taken care of to make it um make it safe for us to come in or or make it safe for the Home or while we conduct in the uh the test um some of the affirmative conditions are um That will prohibit us from doing work. Um is unhealthy conditions in the house um if the building structure has um mechanical systems electrical plumbing issues that are beyond our scope of work We would have to defer until those could be corrected. Um the home if the home has been condemned um electrical Heating or plumbing equipment has been red tagged for some reason by the state or local Utilities we can't we have to defer it at home and sometimes there are moisture problems That we find that will cause us to defer the unit. Um other dangerous conditions might be high carbon monoxide levels if you got combustion appliances in the house And that can't be reasonably resolved. We can resolve some minor ones But some maybe it may be more than what we can Out of our scope of work If the client is uncooperative abusive abusive of threatening to the crew subtract Subcontractors the auditors inspectors or other people who come to the home to visit They have to defer that if the home has lead paint Um used to be a real problem a home bit for 1978 we have to check and see if the paint Is lead and if that's the case then that's another Uh reason for deferment until we can get that corrected And if there are illegal activities going on in in household we have to defer um Once we get all the information together we we do an energy audit and our energy audit is provided through the department of the energy and um, it's called weather resistance weather weatherization assistance program We load all the information to the program We run the audit and then the audit tells us some measures that we can That that are in our pervaded we can do um Some typical measures that they uh, it allows us to do is we attic installation floor installation wall duct water heat installation Uh, we can caulk and see a leak of windows. We can weather strip exterior doors we add Air sea of penetrations we install exhaust fans replace light bulbs with CFLs We install low flow shower heads and we install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as far as our health and safety Measures, um on our air sealing We get an initial reading we try to at least reduce That by 30 and that reflects a pretty good Savings on the monthly utility bills and we can get the house sealed to that much and some examples of things we do we If they are holes on the exterior walls, we can repair those. Um, we seal Ducks because a lot of whole lot of images lost around the ducks where they come up through the floor. They're not sealed We seal those And we insulate the duct pipes And We do attic installation The standard for us in South Carolina is 30 and a lot of homes that were built back in the 70s and 80s have Like r11 so add insulation adds to the comfort of house thermal comfort and help save energy um We also add The excess to your attic is like a hole in your thermal Barrier, so we insulate that we install attic hatches that are insulated at attack attic hatches we um Put floor insulation in if there's none um And we wrap hot water heaters um Those are some of the common things that we do um, we have recently Been able to reflect replace refrigerators with energy efficient refrigerators Like I said, any refrigerators are a high usage item and we Do the led bulbs and we do smart thermostats for your hVAC systems um we According to ash race standards, we have to have A house has has has to have adequate ventilation So we install ventilation fans and we put those on a smart switch which automatically work would work automatically So all we have to do is just install it and set a time on switching it It vents the house Uh according to what's needed to make sure that fresh gas is in the house at all times We install smoke alarms and co alarms and we vent dryers and other Items in your house that need to be vented through The shell of the house to the outside um In conclusion the program is designed to reduce the energy costs for low-income families Before the homeless was rising and in-depth energy audited to access the whole home as a system is conducted Energy audited identifies the measures that would be we provide it That would provide the highest savings for the home and the weatherization assistant program Does not make aesthetic changes to the home a lot of people think That when we come to the house We have a lot of calls for windows and doors and The program is just not designed to replace all those if there are situations where It's absolutely necessary against the chance. We may be able to do it But a lot of people think they can look at the house You can look at a house before we come And after we leave and you wouldn't be able to tell we had been there because all our work is done inside And in areas that are not Noticeable, but they updated tell the difference with their electrically the energy usage because these measures reduce Their energy usage which in in return reduces their energy bill And that's all I have Sorry about the presentation No problem at all. Thank you. That was great information And so now we're going to talk about consumer rights. And so we're going to hear from tequila waller Who is the consumer services? Investigator South carolina office of regulatory staff and so tequila the floor is yours Thank you so much dr. Warren for Allowing me to be here today to actually be able to present our information As dr. Warren said I am tequila waller with the south carolina office of regulatory staff I am an investigator with the office of regulatory staff and The south carolina office of regulatory staff was created in 2004 And we represent the consumers and investor on utilities here in south carolina The rs is tasked with looking at the impact To the consumers and the utilities continued investment in reliable and high quality service So what I'll be talking about as dr. Warren said today, I will be discussing The consumer rights because a lot of times consumers do not know exactly what their rights are When they are dealing with their utilities and the more they know the better they can actually operate Consumers have the right to establish service Now what we want to make clear with that is you have the right to establish services Meaning the utility cannot deny a consumer from applying for service That does not mean that the consumer will always get the service There may be things in place that will that will cause a consumer Not to be able to get service until certain things are done But they do have the right to apply If a consumer is able to apply for service Then the utility may have to have access to their property in order to check maybe for safety issues Or to possibly check for any type of equipment that needs to be repaired or something on the home In addition to that the consumer may be required to post a deposit in order to get service And we want to make sure that they are aware that those are some of the things that the utility may require And they are regulated Another thing that we want to make sure that consumers understand is the foreign's disconnections You have the right to a written notice from the utility prior to your services being disconnected The regulations state that not less than 10 days prior to the termination of service The utility shall mail a notice of termination to the affected customer A lot of times this particular notice is on the consumer's bill So we want to make sure that that consumers are aware and making sure that they're properly reading their bills So that they are aware and can take a look at these notices that may be on the bill Once that after that 10 day notice no more than two business days prior to the termination of service The utility shall make reasonable effort Reasonable effort to either by phone or in person be a door tag or some sort of notification Let the customer know that they are subject to termination The utility also From the utility you have the option of habit. We have the right excuse me to have a payment plan We also try to make sure that consumers understand That the payment plan that the company offers may not be the exact payment plan that you were requesting And a lot of times we have issues with consumers not being real clear On the agreement that has been offered by the company So we try to make sure that they understand what you may be requesting May not be exactly what the company is going to provide The defer payment plan requires that the consumer keep the account current And pay no less than one sixth of the outstanding balance Which means you can get a defer payment agreement where you have to pay your current bill Plus another amount in order to keep that account current Any agreement to extend or defer payment cut off by more than five working days Is considered a defer payment plan We often get calls from consumers and we'll ask them Are you on a defer payment plan and they will say no And once we contact the utility to get more information We'll find out that they are in fact on a defer payment plan And we're not clear on exactly what they were setting up with the company So we try to make sure that anything that goes beyond five working days Is considered defer payment plan by the company Meters a lot of times we try to clarify with consumers about their meters You have the right as a consumer to have your meter tested for accuracy For for each utility at any time when we request it in writing and it doesn't actually have to be in writing The utility can test that meter for accuracy if you actually think that there is something wrong with your meter You can reach out to your utility and request that they test your meter In the event that the meter is found to have an error In registration of more than two percent then the bill will be increased or decreased accordingly We try to make sure that we let consumers know that if there is some issue that it can be increased or decreased Based on if there is an error of two percent or more with your meter You also have the right for your utility to explain the method in which they are reading your meter A lot of times consumers aren't real clear on when their bills are read and how much time is involved with reading that meter So we try to make sure they understand that unless there is some Extinuating circumstances whether it be some sort of weather condition or some type of issue that meters Shall be read and bills render on a monthly basis No less than 28 days and no more than 34 days If the bill is going to be outside of those parameters It is required that the utility reach out to the ors to make that exception If there is no exception requested then these are the terms in which the bill should be within An explanation of your bill you have the right as a consumer to have an explanation of your bill Because there's no way that you're actually going to be able to pay a bill and understand what's happening If you don't know everything that's included and as a utility customer you have the right to have that explained The bill shall show the readings at the beginning and at the end of the period for which that particular bill is rendered The bill shall also have the date that the meter is read so that you'll know each month and around this time Your meter will be read The date of billing and the latest date on which You can pay without incurring a penalty will also be included on your bill The bill will also tell you the number and kind of units that are used to measure whether that be Kilowatts or terms depending on what particular utility and what particular service you're actually getting your bill from You'll also have a rate schedule or an identification of the applicable rate This will tell you if you are on the correct rate so that you know you're paying Correctly for your usage if the actual rate is not on your bill Then there should be some type of statement that should be furnished upon request majority of your bills will in fact have that identifier on If there is some issue with the company issuing you an actual bill And you have to get an estimated bill that bill shall clearly be marked Defying that it was an estimated bill and not an actual read bill that you are receiving Your bill will also include the total amount that is due for the services that the utility has provided for you You also as a consumer have the right to contact your utility at all hours the utility company provides a On-call if it's after hours, they will have an answering service or an on-call person To speak to in the event that there is some type of an emergency or some Unscaled interruption of your service So always check your bill to make sure that you have access to the correct number So that you're able to reach your utility in the event that there is some type of an emergency Complaints We in the office of regulatory staff specifically the consumer services department We handle complaints, but as a consumer you have the right to speak directly with your utility To advise them if you are having an issue or a complaint Your utility cannot help you to resolve your issue if they are not aware that you actually have an issue So you have the right to have questions or complaints Promptly and thoroughly investigated by your utility But it is imperative that you let them know that you are having this particular issue And if you have are not able to get it resolved through the utility Then you have the right to call the office of regulatory staff our consumer services department Will assist you with trying to get the issue resolved or getting more information If need be to help try and get that issue resolved for you And once if you have gone through your utility You have spoken with the consumer services department And you then find out that you still are not able to get the resolution that you are seeking As a consumer you have the right to file what's called a formal Complaint with the public service commission and request a hearing if you're unable to resolve that complaint by working with your utility or the ors And as I said, my name is takisha waller I am an investigator with the consumer services department of the office of regulatory staff Feel free to reach out to us if you find yourself in need of our services Thank you takisha And so next we have natasha pauling She is a development public information officer for the south carolina association of community action partnerships It's on natasha. The floor is yours Hello Can you hear me? We can hear you It's kind of low. So Maybe if you could just up the volume just a little bit Try Is that any better? Yes, it is it may be better as you start presenting. Sorry great Let me go ahead and share my screen There we are So, um, we'd like to talk about some common utility scans to be to be aware of The first of of those is the door to door scam The way the scam works is someone comes and knocks on your door And they don't just tell you about the products they offer or a chance of purchase They wouldn't actually trick you into signing They may offer you an initial teaser rate. They may say that what they're offering you is required for you to do or else they may Engage in something called slamming where they may use your personal information to make you purchase a product without your consent A door-to-door sale stands. How do I tell it to the scam? Number one, they won't identify themselves. They'll say i'm from the power company They won't identify which power company you're from And they also can't produce an ID They'll ask to see your bill if they're from the power company. They already have the bill They produced your bill and they don't need for you to produce it for them And if they use high-pressure tactics and say i'm a salesperson But they try and get you to immediately sign up For something then they're probably a scam The next in line is power shutoff scams How the scam works is this scam can take several different forms. You might get an email Plaining that you're from the utility and they're going to shut your power off because you haven't paid the bill They may call you and tell you that's going to happen. But it's always the same You must pay your bill immediately so avoid having your power shut off Sometimes they'll ask for your information your financial information And sometimes they'll ask you to give them a prepaid debit card cryptocurrency or go down to your local supermarket and wire them some money Please don't do that They'll come to your door showing up the rent demanding money That's always a red flag They'll demand immediate payment utility companies will not do that They've already told you how that works the oris has already informed you of that And they'll also request an untraceable payment such as what i was telling you they'll ask you to wire the money or somehow give them A prepaid debit card or something along those lines Another red flag is that they can be angry or threatening utility companies won't yell at you. They will curse at you They won't make you feel as though you're being attacked Um, you can know that you paid your bill And they're still trying to get you to pay And if you've received no prior notices if you've already been notified you're entitled to attend a notice When it comes to these scams, what do you do? How do you protect yourself? One don't trust your caller ID. They can scam you with your caller ID Don't just redial back to the person who just called you Actually get your bill out and call the number directly that's on your bill Don't give them anything. No information whatsoever. Um, even if you think it's legitimate Still don't hand anything out to them information money anything And check your real utility account. You can check it online. You can call to check And don't use the number or the link they gave you because they're probably a scam And they may look very convincing instead again goes to your utility bill and use the information on there And so, um, if you that was what I was telling you just now So then there are power restoration stamps number three How does this work? You may lose power in your neighborhood and have someone show up at your door looking very official and telling you that If you just face pay a fee They'll get your service right back on or they'll get your service on faster than anyone else's you're thinking Go ahead and pay that money Well in truth the power company doesn't do that They do not demand money for Being prioritized in the order of restoration So how do you tell us a scam? It's always a scam. What to do? Shut the door or hang up. That's it replacement and repair scams How the scam works usually by phone Someone will say we need to make some changes to your equipment from the utility So it's a necessary service. You have to pay for it If you don't pay for it, they'll turn off your electricity. What do you do? How do you protect yourself? Call your energy company at the number listed on your bill because your utility company Will instead build you for any necessary equipment changes that are actually um applicable to you fake federal programs Facebook How many of you get the have you heard about have you heard the good news about the new federal program? In your if you fail from facebook So how the scam works? You'll contact. He's telling you about a special federal program that can cover the cost of your energy bills And they may reach out to you by phone emails text social media or even comes to your door Um, they could put flyers up in your neighborhood They look really official in some cases Once they get you they'll try and get your personal information and steal your identity or engage in some other form of fraud Um, and they'll also try and get their hands on your money If you provide them with your bank routing number or some other information They will get the money that you pay into whatever account Fake federal programs how to protect yourself Um direct federal program paying for your utility bills does not exist does not exist in the united states Like the state program and in south carolina, it is Though it receives federal money it's run at the state level and it is exclusively run by the like by the South and south carolina by the community action agencies in south carolina And so you have to apply through community action in order to receive why he funded Other funding sources Some states do have separate funds to help with energy bills and who knows south carolina may develop a such a fund in the future But not right now In addition, some utility companies as they've already told you also offer payment assistance programs to customers who have trouble paying their bills Number five fake federal programs. What do you do? If you get a message about an energy assistance program, please don't sign up or give Give any personal information go to benefits dot gov So what's the government site and search for real energy assistance programs in your state? And um, you can also search With the state energy office, which has a list of energy assistance programs for the state of south carolina Utility company imposter This is a cute one. I actually had this happen to my best friend's mother Um in the charleson area criminals can show up at your door often wearing a uniform with the utility energy with an energy utilities logo on it And try and get into your house Like saying they need to inspect your fuse box or your electric meter And then they'll try and keep you busy while they either search for something to steal or their partner does in some cases They've told an elderly person. Hey, let's go down to the basement Watch this white bulb and see if the color changes while I run upstairs and they made off with about 75 thousand dollars in cash How to protect yourself number one always always ask for id if they're real they'll have it Number two never show your bill. It will contain information. They could use to scam you in some way Number three do not let them in your house unless you can confirm that you're actually talking to a real utility worker And if you feel like something's a little off trust your gut trust your judgment and call the utility company and see if they've sent someone to her home Don't let them in Leave them outside lock the door and then call Thank you for your time My name is Natasha polling on with the south carolina association community action partnerships We're located at 2700 millberg drive in columbia Our number is 803 7719404 and you may also reach us at www.scotcap.org My executive director is just coming for our board chairs. Walter Fleming is executive director of PDT in the action and I'm the resource development and public information officer and that is my email address as well Thank you very much. Thank you miss everything Thank you So now we're going Pardon me And so now we're going to get another resource that is available the energy savers tool And we're going to have stacey washington who is the energy specialist with the south carolina Energy office share that resource so stacey the floor is yours Thank you tamra. Um as tamra said in my name is stacey washington. I'm with the south carolina energy office And we're part of the officer regulatory staff and our mission is to promote Energy efficiency renewable energy and clean transportation And today i'm going to talk to you about our resource that we have available that will help you With energy efficiency and it will bring together some of all this information you heard today You may be thinking there's a lot of information that was presented I don't remember who to contact never feared energy office is here and we have a resource to help put all that together So, um, this is our new website energy saver.sc.gov On this website you can find energy efficiency tips For your home or for your business as well as contact information for your utility If you click on on for your home, we see all these different pieces of information where you can go find out about weatherization Appliances on heating and cooling Apartments as well as on single-family homes You can also click on for your business to find information on energy efficiency there as well But today i'm going to concentrate on our energy saver tool So today you heard about many resources that are available to help you with your energy And this is a way to put all that together and all the contact information is in one place Go to energy saver tool on the energy saver website energy saver.sc.gov and click on use the energy tool energy saver tool I mean you click on that you'll Again click on use the energy saver tool Once you get in the tool you have a choice for your home or for your business Today i'm going to talk about for your home Since we're talking to residents When you get to for your home, you will be asked to your electric and natural gas utility If for some reason you do not know your Utility you can click on don't know your electric utility and you will be able to go to a map to find your utility name And when you get to this website, you can type in your address here at the top and then The name of your utility will populate in this left hand part of the screen So today since we are in dominion territory, I will enter dominion So you click on dominion and then you get a question. I think I'll qualify for low-income programs But do not think I'll qualify and this just gives you a way to lead out all of the programs I'm going to click on I think I'll qualify for low-income so everything will show up Once you click on that you'll be asked to your county and this is only if you pick I think I'll qualify for low-income if you don't know your county you can always go to a map here as well So I'll put in Richland county And you see it populates with the list. So today we had speakers from dominion Speak on their programs all the programs that they spoke about are here on this list You can click on the link and it will take you to the web page for that program In addition to the utility programs, you will also See a list of home repair programs as the weatherization speaker mentioned sometimes you can be deferred if you have health and safety issues at your home So this we put home repair programs here to give you that resource so you Will quickly be able to be able to get the weatherization assistance So these programs are here as well as any tax incentives federal and state We also have the low-income energy assistance program that was spoken about as well And we also have the weatherization assistance program that was spoken about so you can find all those resources here in one place So if you were listening today and thought okay, I don't remember who the contact. This is a resource You can also export to a pdf or to excel So if you are someone who works with the community and wants to get more information out to people They don't have computer access You can download the pdf and print them out and hand them out to people Or if you have someone you would just you know, you found this information I want to share it you can put in the pdf download it and email it So we wanted to make sure it was available if you don't have internet access as well Also, if you want to look at several programs, please Ensure you click start over at the bottom of the page so you can go back to the beginning If you click the back button, the computer is confused and you won't get the proper information We also have a search by category feature that I want to highlight here So for instance, if you know the program name that you want to look for you can type it in here Or if you all want to look at all the dominion programs you can type in dominion and that'll populate as well You can also export a list of everything that is in the tool So if you need for some reason a whole list of the programs that's available too If you just want to search by category You can go in and just look for grants and loans rebates Tax incentives just all the low income programs of extra natural gas solar and transportation For example, someone called me today and they wanted to know about grants and loans You click on grants and loans and then all those that are in the tool will populate The same thing tax incentives if you're it's tax time You know if you want looking for a tax incentive you can come here and look just for the tax incentives And then like I said before click start over to start your new search And that's just all I wanted to tell you about today is our resource that's available. So please use it And it's here for you to find everything you need for energy savings. Thank you Well, thank you stacey And so as you can see there's been a lot of good information resources and tools that have been provided from all of our partners all the agencies that were represented today And so if you got information about this event You knew that you were able to send questions at our email address, which is cpec.energy101 at gmail.com and so some of the questions that were sent in prior to the event were actually answered But we have had some questions in the chat So I do want to pose this question to dominion and the questions asked for our demand households experiencing high energy burns They're often concentrated in certain regions or neighborhoods Including urban residential areas where racial and income segregation are associated with homes that lack energy efficiencies So the question is is enter is dominion using their neighborhood energy efficiency program with its neighborhood's door-to-door approach as a way to proactively Target communities experiencing high enter high energy burdens that could use the energy saving measures to lower their utility bills And so we have had some representatives from dominion And so I pose that question to any of our panelists from dominion if they would like to answer or provide more information Thank you, dr. Warren. I'll address that question So with the neighborhood program as I mentioned earlier We look at neighborhoods where at least 50 percent of the residents are at 200 percent of the poverty level When we look at our information our data to choose neighborhoods to work in The 200 percent the 50 percent at 200 percent the data tells us that 60 percent Or 70 percent whatever that percentage is it'll let us know who are right at That 200 percent of the poverty level center at that poverty level that means 40 percent do not meet that income requirement So what we do is we try to get the neighborhoods who are at 90 percent or above that are at 200 percent of that poverty level or less So we know it know that we're impacting the the customers that really need the assistance the most Or really at that poverty level and have that energy burden that we're looking to help and assist Hope that answers the question I hope so Um, no new questions have been put into chat, but thank you very much for clarifying that And so again, I would like to thank everyone who has presented good information this evening On behalf of the city of columbia c-pack committee We hope that this information has been beneficial for you If you do have any additional questions either for c-pack or the individuals that provided information today You are welcome to email us at c-pack that energy 101 at gmail dot com Or we also do invite you to look at the energy saver tool that was provided by stacey washington Where you can get a lot of the information or contact information for the individuals that we're presenting here today So definitely reach back out to us if you want to get more information Or if we can assist you with getting in contact with our presenters So again panelists, thank you for sharing the wealth of knowledge that you have provided We also thank you residents of the city columbia For chiming in with your questions as well as watching and seeing the good information that's being provided So again on behalf of the city columbia c-pack as well as all of our business Partners as well as those uh Panelists that were here. We thank you and we hope that you have a great evening. Good night