Programs: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Guidance Update Contact with Questions: Please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
NYSERDA is continuing to work on updating the submission process and guidance for work scopes with heat pumps. We will provide an overview of these updates as part of the 6/21 Single Family Residential Program webinar (rescheduled from 6/14) and therefore request that contractors continue to pause on submitting heat pump work scopes until 6/24 (regardless of project funding type). To register for the webinar, please click here. If there are any questions, please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
Programs: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Inflation Reduction Act HEAR Funding for EmPower+ Questions: If there are any questions on the application process, please call us at 1-866-NYSERDA. For project related questions, please contact contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.
NYSERDA is pleased to announce the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offering for the EmPower+ program through the IRA Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) Program will be available beginning June 3, 2024. Please read through this announcement for information on reviewing past webinars and trainings, upcoming webinars and office hours, and changes to the Program Manual.
On May 3, 2024, NYSERDA provided an overview of the IRA HEAR Program offering for the EmPower+ program. If you missed the webinar, you can access it, along with a question and answer document,here.
The webinar covered the following topics:
General IRA overview/estimated funding
Eligibility updates
Program process changes
Cost effectiveness criteria
CLEAResult provided IRA HEAR contractor training on May 22nd and May 28th. If you missed these trainings, the May 28th training has been posted to the Webinars section on the Contractor Support site: https://hpwescontractorsupport.com/webinars/. The specific links are: Video and PDF
Upcoming Training and Webinars
Be sure to register for the June 21st Contractor Webinar, where Program will be available to answer additional IRA-related questions. To register, click here.
CLEAResult will host office hours in late May and throughout June to address additional IRA/Program questions. Be sure to attend one of the below sessions if you are interested.
Participating Contractors and Other Interested Parties
Programs: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) Contact with Questions: Please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069
NYSERDA has received approximately $9.5 million from the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) funding to serve Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) recipients with envelope and heat pump measures. This funding is currently live.
To qualify for this offering, customers must provide one of the following at the time of application:
HEAP (Heating) award letter dated between October 1, 2023, or later, with Client Identification Number (CIN) or Case Number.
HEAP (Cooling) award letter dated between October 1, 2023, or later with CIN or Case Number.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) award letter dated between October 1, 2023, or later, with a Case Number.
For applications that have already been submitted, if the higher incentive amount is requested, Program will need an updated award letter per the above and TRC will need to confirm eligibility with OTDA. Once eligibility is confirmed, TRC will update Salesforce with the higher maximum incentive amount and notify CLEAResult.
For this offering, up to $20,000 in funding is available per household. To be considered for funding, households must be identified with an approved application no later than July 1, 2024, and work must be completed by September 30, 2025. Funding is available on a first come first served basis. Being identified as eligible for the funding does not reserve funds. It is up to the participating contractor to complete the work in a timely manner while the funds are still available if they wish to serve households at the higher incentive cap.
This funding is available to all current program year HEAP recipients including households on Long Island and in municipal utility territories. This funding cannot be used in conjunction with the upcoming Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for the same project.
Information regarding the OTDA offering was included on the May 3, 2024, contractor webinar. If you missed the webinar, you can access it, along with a frequently asked questions document,here.
If there are any questions on the application process, please call us at 1-866-NYSERDA. For project related questions, please contact contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.
Program: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: May 15, 2024 -Updated project deadline for geo-eligibility projects to be completed by. Contact with Questions: Please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069
As a reminder, May 15, 2024, is the new deadline for any EmPower+ project where the household was determined eligible by geo-eligibility to be completed and closed out by. A 30-day extension has been added to the originally announced date of April 15, 2024. Projects that are not completed by May 15, 2024, will need to be closed by CLEAResult. When the customer reapplies, a new enrollment will be created for them. Contractors can enter the information from the previous enrollment into the new enrollment. If there are any questions, please reach out to contractor support at 1-800-284-9069.
Program: Comfort Home To: Comfort Home Contractors Summary: Comfort Home Migration to NYHEP Contact with Questions:Comforthome@nyserda.ny.gov
In mid-2024, NYSERDA will be migrating Comfort Home from the current Compass workflow platform to the NY Home Energy Portal (NYHEP). NYHEP is the workflow system used for EmPower+ and REA (the Residential Energy Assessment program). This change will simplify the contractor experience by having one common platform across all of the NYSERDA small home residential programs. NYSERDA has started planning for this migration in areas such as training, workflow testing, data migration, and reporting. Additional information will be shared in the coming months.