Smart motors and thermostats, cooling devices, built-in messaging and sustainable lighting systems were recently tagged as the main methods for Arizona Public Service (APS) consumers to control their household or office energy needs in peak season.

The announcement followed the Arizona Corporation Commission’s recent approval for APS to continue its energy efficiency programs, including those five measures.

APS's commercial and residential customers can recover up to 75 percent of their investment by installing smart thermostats, which interact with HVAC systems to provide alerts and automatic calibrations in the future, and cooling devices on their equipment to cope with the Southwest’s dry desert climate.

Additional upgrades customers can make include event-based messaging to alert users of peak days and electronically commutated (EC) motors, which can lower energy consumption by at least 65 percent. Also, LED linear lighting upgrades will include rebates for those business customers who switch from fluorescent to LED lamps.

APS’s approved 2016 Demand Side Management (DSM) Plan focuses on helping customers manage peak demand and encourage smart technology use. The plan also outlines APS’s continued work toward compliance with the Energy Efficiency Standard (EES) of 22 percent by 2020.

“Pairing advanced technology with customer education empowers our customers to have more control over their own energy use,” said Jim Wontor, APS’ DSM manager. “Today’s advanced grid would be unrecognizable to generations past. Not only is technology being implemented in the field to give utilities real-time information on energy use, but customers … are being given tools to manage their energy use like no point in history.”