2023 in Review: Shared Successes for a Sustainable Future

2023 was a year of undeniable and sustained momentum toward our sustainability goals. Examining the outcomes of our commercial programs delivers such proof: hundreds of commercial customers participating in our programs, millions of dollars in incentives and rebates distributed, and thousands of tons of carbon emissions avoided. These successes could not have been reached without the partnership of you, our largest customers; we thank you for your participation in our Commercial, Industrial & Institutional (CII) programs and our electric vehicle (EV) programs and for the role you played in these achievements in 2023.

Expanding Efficiency

From schools to high rises, office buildings to retail stores, our CII customers’ efforts at efficiency brought outstanding results in 2023. Last year, customers completed 495 efficiency projects across six CII programs—Commercial Lighting Incentive Program, Custom Performance Program, Upstream HVAC, Food Service Program, Savings By Design,* and California Advanced Homes Program.*

In aggregate, these projects reduced energy use by an estimated 59.3 million kilowatt-hours per year—or the equivalent of powering more than 10,400 homes annually. Along with seeing bill savings from curbing their energy use, program participants also earned a total of nearly $13.5 million in financial incentives.

A key contributor to these accomplishments was our Commercial Lighting Incentive Program (CLIP), which offers incentives for the completion of energy-efficient lighting retrofit projects. The $9.3 million it paid in financial incentives last year was a 32% increase over the incentives it paid in 2022. And in 2023, CLIP participants’ 171 lighting modernization projects accounted for 35% of the CII projects paid while responsible for more than two-thirds of the energy savings!

Changes are on the horizon for some of our CII programs in 2024, with higher incentive rates, streamlined applications, and new measures. With these program changes, we hope to better serve our commercial customers and aid them in adopting efficiency and decarbonization strategies more cost effectively and equitably. Further details about the coming program updates will be available this spring.

*Savings By Design and California Advanced Homes Program are no longer offered and have been replaced by Zero By Design, which encourages developers to build more sustainably by providing incentives for the purchase and installation of high-efficiency new equipment.

Electrifying Strides

In 2023, our EV programs continued the push to meet our transportation electrification goals. Of the more than 35,708 existing and in-progress commercial EV chargers currently in Los Angeles, 5,985 were added in FY22/23. Overall, the total gains of 2023 spurred us into the homestretch for our 2025 commercial charging goals: by the end of last year, there were 28,019 Level 2 (L2) chargers and 681 Direct Current Fast Chargers (DCFCs) in Los Angeles. Now, the installation of just 16,300 commercial chargers separates us from our goal of 45,000—and of those remaining chargers, 6,980 are already in progress.
 

The necessity of Los Angeles’s surging number of commercial chargers is made clear by the burgeoning number of EVs on LA roads. By the end of 2023, LA was home to just over 148,000 registered plug-in EVs (PEVs)—a nearly 50% increase over the number of registered PEVs at the end of 2022.
 

In the coming year, our electric transportation programs will provide more opportunities to support our commercial customers with installing EV chargers. From February 20 to March 1, the Commercial EV Charging Rebate Program will open enrollment for L2 charger and DCFC rebates. Commercial customers may receive up to $5,000 for an L2 charging station, while a rebate of up to $100,000 is available for DCFCs. An additional enrollment period will follow in June 2024. Enrollment also is currently open on an ongoing basis for rebates of up to $125,000 for medium- and heavy-duty (MDHD) EV charging stations.

These staggering accomplishments make clear that our largest customers embrace a way of operating that centers on efficiency and electrification in a world shaped by climate change. Your participation and support create these shared successes as we together push Los Angeles toward the greener future that lies ahead. Please contact your Key Account advisor if you have any questions about any of the programs discussed above, or if you would like to speak more in depth about how your organization can save money and go green by participating in our efficiency and electrification programs.