Tri-State promotes CFL effort throughout its membership

According to the national Energy Star program, if every American homeowner replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), consumers would save enough electricity to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

With that in mind, the board of directors of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has approved a CFL program aimed at helping electric cooperative member-consumers lower their energy bills while emphasizing the benefits of energy efficiency – just one of several energy efficiency initiatives sponsored by Tri-State and offered through its 44 member distribution systems.

Tri-State is making an initial purchase of 44,000 CFLs and is distributing 1,000 to each of its member cooperatives, while offering a rebate of $1 per additional bulb should individual co-ops choose to purchase them. Each of the 44 co-ops will determine how it distributes the CFLs to its member-consumers.

“By getting the ball rolling in this manner, we’re hoping to further assist our member co-ops in promoting energy efficiency while saving their consumers money in such a simple, yet effective way,” said Tri-State executive vice president/general manager J.M. Shafer.

While CFLs are available in different wattages, sizes and shapes to fit in almost any indoor or outdoor fixture, the bulbs that Tri-State is purchasing use 23 watts of electricity, but give the equivalent light of a 100-watt incandescent bulb – all while using two-thirds less energy and lasting up to 10 times longer.

Tri-State supplies wholesale electricity to 18 cooperatives in Colorado, 12 in New Mexico, eight in Wyoming and six in western Nebraska – which together serve more than 570,000 meters or a population of approximately 1.4 million consumers.