EPE offers program to help customers save money during summer

As of Wednesday, the ABC-7 StormTrack Weather team has recorded twenty days of triple-digit heat in the Borderland.

El Paso Electric offers a program to help save customers money as the electric bills increase during the summer months.

The eSmart Thermostat Program allows EPE to remotely communicate with the WiFi-enabled thermostat connected to the customer’s central refrigerated air conditioning unit.

During the summer peak hours, EPE can adjust a home’s temperature when no one is home to help reduce an electrical overload, or Demand Response event.

Demand Response event can last a maximum of four hours.

The eSmart Program is voluntary and customers do have to buy their own thermostats, they are not provided or installed by EPE, but they do offer a list of authorized vendors.

EPE spokesman, Eddie Gutierrez said the three-year pilot program is available for 3,000 devices for residential and small commercial customers in EPE’s Texas and New Mexico service area. Gutierrez said there are currently 1,500 spaces available.

“The great thing about the program is that customers still have control of their thermostats,” Gutierrez said.

EPE is offering a one-time enrollment incentive of $125 for each smart thermostat enrolled by the customer and approved by EPE.

A $25 annual participation incentive will be issued at the end of each Demand Response Season (June 1-Sept. 30).