Consumers Energy’s Business Solutions program awarded $7.3 million in incentives in the fourth quarter of 2012 to help Michigan commercial and industrial customers become more energy efficient.

Spending on energy efficiency programs funded by electric and natural gas utility customers will double by 2025 to about $9.5 billion per year, according to projections published by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

ICF International has been awarded a new contract to provide energy efficiency services to Energy Trust of Oregon for its Existing Buildings program. The contract has a value of $16 million and a term of two years. Additionally, the contract allows for a potential three option years. 

The United States and Canada are leading the world with programs to deliver industrial energy efficiency services to customers, according to a new report by the Institute for Industrial Productivity (IIP) and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Mayor Mike McGinn has announced a new approach to helping commercial electric utility customers in Seattle achieve energy savings. He introduced a three-year pilot project that will test an energy conservation concept known as “pay for performance.”

Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) is lending $1 million for “Campus Efficiency Now,” a new program aimed at advancing energy efficiency and promoting cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable energy for Connecticut’s independent colleges.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) reported that its energy efficiency programs resulted in savings of 5,900 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2010-2011, enough to power more than 600,000 households for a year — the equivalent of two major power plants.

As part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to help American homes and businesses save money by saving energy, the department is developing new voluntary procedures, or protocols, to standardize how state and local governments, industry, and energy-efficiency organizations estimate energy savings.

IBM released its ninth annual Corporate Responsibility Report, in which the company reported significant results in energy conservation and data center energy efficiency last year. The company said it saved more than $43 million in electricity expenses and conserved 378,000 megawatt hours of electricity last year.

Oncor has awarded the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) with a $98,371 cash incentive for replacing older cooling equipment with energy-efficient HVAC equipment in its Supplemental Utility Plant and residence halls.