Save Energy to Save Money | Truckee Donner Public Utility District

Cold weather often means more energy use. TDPUD has tips, tools and programs to help you manage your energy consumption and save money on your electric bills.

Step 1: Understand your Data

With TDPUD’s SmartHub platform, we give you the tools you need to analyze your account’s energy and water data. And new improvements to the platform make tracking and comparing your usage easier than ever. This is how you can start to chart your behavior to identify usage patterns and find opportunities to save.

We will be launching an optional time-of-use rate in 2024, which is a way to give customers control of their energy costs by incentivizing energy use outside of the peak times when energy costs the most to procure. For customers who join this program, energy use outside of 4 to 9 p.m. will cost less than energy use during that peak time. Understanding your usage data now will help you decide whether enrolling in that rate will be beneficial for your household.

screenshot of smarthub homepage

Click here to log on to your SmartHub account. Click here to read our SmartHub FAQ and tips for navigating your online account.

Step 2: Take Action to Conserve

You can reduce energy use with small behavior changes to your everyday life. Things like closing crawl space vents, installing weather-stripping and pipe insulation, and replacing your air filter can make a difference in how much energy your house uses to keep you warm in the winter.

Pictures of a man pointing to a crawl space vent, a person applying weather stripping to a window, and a person changing an air filter.

Drafty doors and window are a common problem in Truckee homes and are often a major source of heat loss among our customers (which causes more energy use!). Replacing older appliances with newer, more energy-efficient ones, and replaces lightbulbs with LEDs are all energy- and cost-saving measures you can take. View our full list of winter efficiency tips at tdpud.org/wintertips.

Pictures of a person changing a lightblub, a refrigerator repairman, and a person applying insulation to pipes.

Step 3: Utilize our Programs

TDPUD has a variety of programs to help customers conserve energy and water, and in turn save money.

Energy Audits

Our free energy audits provide a personalized assessment of your home’s energy efficiency and recommendations for improvements. Click here for more information.

a man talking to another man as part of a energy audit

Energy Efficiency Rebates

We offer rebates to offset a number of energy-efficiency upgrades you can make to your home, from replacing appliances to weatherizing your home. We can help offset costs for purchases like replacing windows and fixing leaky ducts, which make a huge difference in energy usage. In partnership with the Town of Truckee, we can now offer these rebates for customers with non-electric primary heating sources. Click here to view our full list of rebates and apply.

Below are the current weatherization rebate amounts. Updates to the program’s prerequisites and rebate amounts are currently being considered and should be finalized by March.

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Payment Assistance

We also offer a few options for income-qualified savings programs. The Energy Savings Program and Payment Assistance are available to people whose income has dropped. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a federally-funded assistance program our qualifying customers can utilize. We also offer a Budget Billing Equal Payment Plan, which estimates your usage across the year based on your previous usage, and then divides that amount in equal monthly payments. This does not save customers money—you still pay for all your usage—but it provides less fluctuation in your payments from month-to-month. Click here to learn more about these programs and how to qualify.

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