Web Solutions:
ARRA Energy Rebates
The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) and Virginia Interactive:
Progressing into the Future Together with the Energy Efficiency Rebate Program.
Overview:
The Energy Efficiency Rebate Program is funded by the Recovery Act and administered by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME). The program provides rebates to consumers who purchase energy efficient retrofit upgrades for their existing (not newly built) homes and businesses after June 25, 2009.
Based on lessons learned from the “Cash for Clunkers” program, DMME chose a two phased approach to this rebate program by implementing a reservation step in the process. A website was developed that allows rebate funds to be reserved for approved energy efficient upgrades prior to purchasing or installing the item(s). A user then must return to the website after completion of the project, in order to request the funds to be paid out.
The system provides administrative features for reviewing and approving requests, as well as internal “anti-fraud” rules to highlight suspicious submissions. In order to streamline the approval process, the use of a barcode and barcode scanners allow the administrators to quickly scan and approve the thousands of rebate redemptions with 100% accuracy.
Innovation Factors
The Recovery Act has provided $15,000,000 in funding for this rebate program for citizens and business owners in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This application is the only means of reserving and redeeming a rebate. Some of the basic functionality for this rebate program will be utilized to develop a Renewable Energy Online Rebate Program (early March, 2010) and an Energy-star Appliance Online Rebate Program (April 2010).
Performance Indicators
- 163 users reserved over $300K prior to the go-live announcement email (soft launch)
- Within the first 24 hours of announcement, 1319 new projects were created reserving $2.4M
- 3401 projects reserved $6.2M the first week
- To date $10.3M has been reserved (5539 projects) and 2519 projects have been submitted to redeem $3.7M in rebates.
Service Link: http://www.virginia.gov/eerebates