PEAR Pays Incentives to Ag Customers Who Shut Down During Peak Demand Events

The Peak Energy Agriculture Rewards (PEAR) Program is a utility endorsed Demand Response program developed to incent Ag customers to use less electricity when overall demand is critically high. PEAR is authorized to offer a variety of programs for customers interested in earning incentives for reducing or shutting down electrical loads and avoiding the high cost of electricity during critical Peak Demand periods.

• Avoids Peak Day Pricing electricity and Critical Peak Pricing surcharges that may increase costs by as much as 10X. For example, charges may jump from $24 per hour to $224 per hour to operate a 250-hp irrigation pump during Peak Demand Events. With PEAR, you can avoid these dramatically higher costs.
• Pays annual incentives averaging $5,000 per service point to Ag customers who volunteer to shut down service points during Peak Demand Events.
• Use our Online Incentive Calculator to estimate how much you could earn
• Provides up to $20,000 in free remote control / monitoring equipment for each service point with a meter. The equipment enables Ag customers to use any phone, Smartphone or Internet-connected computer to:
  • Turn service points on and off (e.g., electric pumps, motors or compressors)
  • Monitor electricity usage
  • Monitor water usage
  • Monitor equipment health
  • Monitor soil moisture (optional soil probes)
  • And much more…

Participating customers receive notifications about 24 hours in advance of an event. This way they can determine whether they want to opt in or out of the event based upon the nature of their loads. For example, an irrigator may determine it's okay to shut down a large irrigation pump for 4 hours. But a tomato processor would decide to opt out during a busy harvest period.