Helping communities learn and grow
Rocky Mountain Power is committed to helping our communities thrive. One way we do that is by partnering with schools – by teaching students about energy and by providing incentives for energy-efficiency upgrades.
Be Wattsmart program
Every year, Rocky Mountain Power and the National Energy Foundation team up to teach fourth graders about sources of energy, energy efficiency, electrical safety and demand response. One key subject students learn about is how electricity is generated and delivered to neighborhoods, homes and businesses.
“This is a great program that was very informative for our students and fits nicely with what we are learning in class about energy,” said a fourth-grade teacher about the program.
Students receive a home energy guide to take home and complete with their parents or guardians about their home’s electrical usage. The guide covers each area in the home and offers energy-efficiency tips. Students tally all the energy-efficient tips they currently follow and receive an energy-efficiency score. Through this activity, each kid becomes an energy-efficiency advocate for their whole family.
“The resources are helpful and student friendly! Thank you for making this option available for our students!” said another Idaho fourth-grade teacher.
Every year, this program reaches over 1,500 Idaho students. School districts that participated in the program in 2023 are:
- Bear Lake School District
- Bonneville Joint School District
- Butte County School District
- Grace County School District
- Jefferson County School District
- Madison School District
- Marsh Valley Joint School District
- Preston School District
- Sugar-Salem Joint School District
- West Side School District
Together, Rocky Mountain Power and the National Energy Foundation are empowering the next generation of energy savers.
Energy-efficient upgrades in schools
In addition to participating in the fourth-grade energy education program, Jefferson Joint School District completed two Wattsmart projects in 2023.
At the gymnasium in Rigby High School, networked lighting controls were installed – a system of interconnected light fixtures that let a user dim or brighten certain fixtures to increase energy efficiency. This project makes the gym more flexible by providing numerous lighting configuration for events, while delivering over 48,000 kilowatt-hours in annual savings, equivalent to more than 4 million smartphones charged.
In addition, the school received over $10,000 in Wattsmart incentives to help offset project costs. The second project was completed at the Jefferson School District’s bus depot. Upgraded exterior lighting fixtures were installed to improve visibility and safety. Now the ground is more illuminated, making it easier to see potential hazards such as ice in the winter. For this project, the school district received a Wattsmart incentive of over $1,400.
Energy-efficient upgrades help schools improve facilities and reduce operating costs to make more resources available for education.