EVERETT — The Washington Department of Commerce is holding a virtual public feedback session on Thursday at 2 p.m. about Snohomish County’s Public Utility District’s home electrification rebate program which supplied 1,429 households with a free appliances supported by the state’s Climate Commitment Act.
In 2024, the Department of Commerce opened up $77 million of Climate Commitment Act funds to support Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) programs across Washington. The program’s goal is to assist households and small businesses in installing efficient electric appliances.
Snohomish PUD received $5.3 million in funds, the most of any utility in the state.
“One of the things I’m really proud of is, we asked the state, in total, at the end of June, how many folks have been served through HEAR,” said Jeff Feinberg, market segments manager for PUD. “There are 2,900 households across the state that have been served, and 1,400 of those were here in Snohomish County because of the way we designed the program.”
Within those households, Snohomish PUD distributed 659 washer and dryer sets, 452 heat pump water heaters and 104 induction stove tops, prioritizing customers who were at or below 80% of the area’s median income.
The PUD intentionally decided to focus on appliances, like water pump heaters, that would cut utility bills while being inexpensive enough to have the funding impact hundreds of households, Feinberg said.
“This is a rare opportunity for some of our low and moderate income households to receive a benefit that doesn’t come around all the time,” he said.
The program also granted an opportunity for the PUD to partner with local retailers Judd & Black and Albert Lee to supply appliances and with four local contractors to install the appliances.
“The relationships we built with like contractors and getting these heat pump water heaters into homes was a big deal,” said Aaron Swaney, a spokesperson for PUD. “We took so much time to build these relationships, and so much of it really paid off in helping customers.”
After public feedback sessions wrap up, PUD will apply for the next round of funding this fall.
In the meantime, the PUD is working to get the word out on the program. Even though the district utilized 99% of the previous funding, the PUD ran into some unexpected obstacles getting customers to reap the benefits of the program.
“It’s always funny, and we joke about this on our team all the time, but it’s surprisingly difficult to give away free money sometimes,” Feinberg said.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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