SHREVEPORT, La. (April 13, 2021) – Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) has earned two 2021 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
SWEPCO received the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award in Arkansas and the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Energy Efficiency Program Delivery Award in Louisiana and Texas.
“The 2021 ENERGY STAR awards recognize the tremendous value and success of SWEPCO’s energy efficiency programs for our customers,” said Paul Pratt, SWEPCO director of Customer Services & Marketing. “Our SWEPCO staff, the implementation team from CLEAResult, and the strong network of contractors are dedicated to helping customers improve the comfort and energy efficiency of their homes. This has been an especially challenging year because of the pandemic, but we were able to achieve significant savings for customers,” Pratt said.
“ENERGY STAR award-winning partners are showing the world that delivering real climate solutions makes good business sense and promotes job growth,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Many of them have been doing it for years, inspiring all of us who are committed to tackling the climate crisis and leading the way to a clean energy economy.”
For information on SWEPCO’s energy efficiency programs, visit SWEPCO.com/save.
Arkansas highlights:
This is the seventh consecutive year SWEPCO has received ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year recognition in Arkansas – and the fifth consecutive year for Sustained Excellence.
SWEPCO’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program in Arkansas promotes the use of ENERGY STAR-certified products and technologies that help improve a home’s energy efficiency and comfort. SWEPCO has been a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR partner since 2012.
The award recognizes accomplishments in 2020, when SWEPCO completed 1,710 single-family and 1,654 multifamily projects in the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program, saving approximately 15.5 gigawatt-hours in energy. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this savings is equivalent to removing 2,239 vehicles from the road for a full year, or avoiding 27,607,361 million miles driven. SWEPCO also implemented a joint Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program with Black Hills Energy Arkansas (BHEA), resulting in the completion of 708 joint projects.
Louisiana and Texas highlights:
This is the first year SWEPCO has received ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year recognition in Louisiana and Texas.
In 2020, the SWEPCO Louisiana and Texas residential energy efficiency programs improved the energy performance of customer homes and increased the installation of ENERGY STAR products. The products installed were 311 high efficiency air-source heat pumps, 287 ENERGY STAR-certified smart thermostats, ENERGY STAR-certified LED lighting in 301 customer homes and nine ENERGY STAR-certified Level 2 EV charging stations. The programs also encouraged the construction of 31 energy efficient homes. Combined, these installations will save SWEPCO Louisiana and Texas customers nearly 9.7 million kilowatt-hours annually, which prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 1,481 passenger vehicles from the road for a year or avoiding 17,018,085 miles driven.
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2021 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
About Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO):
SWEPCO, an American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) company, serves more than 543,000 customers in northwest and central Louisiana, northeast Texas and the Texas Panhandle, and western Arkansas. SWEPCO’s headquarters are in Shreveport, La. News releases and other information about SWEPCO can be found at SWEPCO.com. Connect with us at Facebook.com/SWEPCO, Twitter.com/SWEPCOnews, Instagram.com/swepco, Youtube.com/SWEPCOtv, LinkedIn.com/company/swepco and SWEPCOConnections.com.
About ENERGY STAR:
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $450 billion in energy costs and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at: https://www.energystar.gov/about and https://www.energystar.gov/about/origins_mission/energy_star_numbers
Media Contacts:
Peter Main
SWEPCO Corporate Communications
479-973-2526
Enesta Jones
EPA Press Officer
Jones.Enesta@epa.gov