Smart Energy Choices for our Community
Posted
on Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Cedar Falls Utilities partners with our customers to make smart energy choices.
For decades, CFU has worked with customers to install energy efficient home appliances, HVAC equipment and insulation improvements.
In 2019, CFU funded $940,579 in cost-sharing rebates for customer energy upgrades.
Those efforts are paying off. Cedar Falls homes and businesses are using less energy.
By decreasing our community’s electric consumption, we conserve natural resources. In addition, Cedar Falls is rapidly transitioning to renewable energy sources. CFU purchases most of the electricity used in Cedar Falls through a regional energy market. The energy generated by nearly all of the wind turbines, solar fields and fossil fuel plants in Iowa flows into that power market daily.
Through the first half of 2020, more than 40% of the energy purchased through the market and distributed in Cedar Falls was generated by wind. That means the share of wind energy in our city’s electric supply has grown from 2% ten years ago to 41% this year, even though the wind turbines are not located in Cedar Falls.
CFU has invested heavily in transmission line and substation upgrades to support the distribution of the wind energy produced in the state.
As the amount of green energy grows, Cedar Falls rates are still among the lowest in Iowa. Every six months CFU surveys utility rates across the state.
In the most recent survey, a typical Cedar Falls customer saved $30 per month on his electric bill compared to the average cost in 20 Iowa peer communities.
Strong customer partnerships to reduce energy consumption and the growth of alternative energy in the Iowa energy market mean our community’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions have shrunk considerably. Today, total CFU CO2 equivalent emissions are 20% less than a decade ago.
Recently, the CFU local Board of Trustees set emissions reduction goals for CFU provided energy sources. Our goal is to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions 45% from 2010 levels by 2030. We are well on our way. CFU’s long-term goal for electric generation is to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
CFU will continue to evaluate all energy sources available as we work to provide sustainable, reliable and economical power to the community.