Pilot Project Encouraging Building Electrification Proves Popular in Washington State, Saving Customers Money While Helping Meet Climate Goals
Results from the pilot show strong customer interest in shifting away from fossils fuels toward electrification.
The transition away from fossil fuels to clean electric appliances is continuing to gain momentum in Washington state and is something customers will voluntarily choose to do. This is one of the main takeaways from a recent pilot project by Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the largest investor-owned utility in Washington state.
In 2022, a coalition of environmental groups represented by Earthjustice — Front and Centered, Sierra Club, and NW Energy Coalition — negotiated a groundbreaking settlement with PSE that required the company to develop a pilot program that would encourage its gas utility customers to electrify their energy needs. The settlement required PSE to offer financial incentives to residential ratepayers that encouraged them to replace their gas furnace with an efficient electric heat pump. The pilot also provided whole-home retrofits to low-income ratepayers who could not afford appliance upgrades — providing these customers with home weatherization and replacing their gas furnaces with electric heat pumps. The pilot program also offered thousands of customers an individualized assessment of energy efficiency and upgrades they could make to their home to reduce their energy use and move away from gas utility service.
The settlement was simple and radical at the same time. By providing financial incentives to customers, PSE encouraged ratepayers to make common-sense investments in their homes that created benefits both for them and the climate by reducing the use of fossil gas.
Part of the success of the program is due to the relationship PSE already had with its customers. As the business that already provides dual-fuel energy services to its customers, meaning both electricity and natural gas, PSE is uniquely positioned to roll out a program that helps its customers transition off fossil fuels and toward electrification.
In December, PSE presented the results of its pilot program to the public via a public webinar. The findings from the pilot program show that:
- Washingtonians want to shift away from gas. Over 1,700 residential ratepayers opted to replace their gas furnace with an electric heat pump. According to data collected by the company, added cooling in the summer was the top reason customers installed a heat pump, and providing a rebate incentive increased program participation by 8%.
- Replacing gas furnaces with electric heat pumps reduced overall energy use and saved customers $75 per year on average in utility bills. The pilot program resulted in a 64% reduction in natural gas use on average among the customers involved in the pilot program and overall resulted in 30% less energy consumption on average. Customers that replaced their furnaces with heat pumps on average saw a 3% decrease in their annual cost for home energy.
- Electrifying home heating substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions. PSE found that program participants reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 19.7%, just by switching their home heating away from gas to electric heat pumps. Heat pumps can reach 300% to 400% efficiency or even higher, meaning they’re putting out three to four times as much energy in the form of heat as they’re using in electricity. They are far more efficient than gas furnaces and, given Washington’s commitment to relying on 100% carbon free electricity by 2045, will eventually become a zero-carbon emission technology.
- Home electrification assessments are a low-cost but important educational tool. Over the course of the two-year pilot program, PSE conducted over 11,000 home electrification assessments. Approximately 60% of participants increased their understanding of the benefits and opportunities of home energy electrification, and the benefit of heat pumps.
The outdoor unit of a heat pump system. (Dennis Schroeder / NREL)
The results from this pilot program demonstrate Washingtonians are ready and willing to make the investment to move away from fossil fuels by transitioning away from gas utility service. We can and should rapidly scale up these programs, which provide benefits to customers and our environment.
With this in mind, the same coalition of environmental advocates again intervened in 2024 in a multiyear rate case filed by PSE. While the utility wanted to offer a second small electrification pilot program to its customers, advocates have urged the Commission to move beyond pilot programs and require PSE to rapidly scale up its electrification program. Advocates urged the Commission to implement a widespread electrification program that would provide incentives for electrifying up to 182,000 customers by the end of 2030. The Commission will issue an order in that case later this month.
The verdict is in: Washingtonians are ready and willing to kick the gas habit and make a transition to clean and efficient electrical appliances. Earthjustice and our partners will continue to work with the Commission, utilities, and advocates to ensure the transition is effective.
A father cooks with his family on an induction stove. The building electrification movement has been gaining steam as a major climate and clean air solution (Halfpoint Images / Getty Images)
Jaimini Parekh is a senior attorney with the Northwest regional office in Seattle with a focus on clean energy.
Jan Hasselman is a senior attorney with Earthjustice's Northwest office in Seattle, WA, which he joined in 1998. Since that time, he has successfully litigated a number of regional and national issues including listings of salmon under the Endangered Species Act, stormwater pollution, coal fired power plants, and coal and crude oil terminals.
Established in 1987, Earthjustice's Northwest Regional Office has been at the forefront of many of the most significant legal decisions safeguarding the Pacific Northwest’s imperiled species, ancient forests, and waterways.
