To: Participating Contractors Regarding Programs: EmPower+ Summary: Holiday Impacts on EmPower+ Program Contact: See Below
NYSERDA wishes you and your family a happy and safe holiday season. Please see below for EmPower+ program staff and implementation staff hours for the end of December and beginning of January.
CLOSURES:
Tuesday, December 24: CLEAResult
Wednesday, December 25: NYSERDA, TRC & CLEAResult
Wednesday, January 1: NYSERDA, TRC & CLEAResult
Customer Support The 1-866-NYSERDA/877-NYSMART number will not be staffed on Wednesday, December 25 or Wednesday December 31.
Contractor Support Participating contractors working in the field in need of emergency approval may contact the following people on the designated day:
Tuesday, December 24: John Carrigan (518-309-0568)
Wednesday, December 25: Mireille Yost (518-207-4529)
Wednesday, January 1: Lea Campbell (518-207-4510)
For non-urgent matters, contact Contractor Support (support.residential@nyserda.ny.gov or (800) 284-9069; requests will be returned following the holiday in the order they were left.
Invoices
With the holidays, there will only be one invoice processed the weeks of December 23 and December 30 per the schedule below.
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Thursday, January 2, 2025
Incentive invoicing processing will return to twice per week beginning the week of January 6.
SUBJECT: MyEnergy Portal launch is Delayed for EmPower+ Program/s: EmPower+ Program To: Participating Contractors and Clean Energy Hubs Summary: EmPower+ MyEnergy Portal launch is delayed
EmPower+ Functionality in the MyEnergy Portal NYSERDA and our partners are continuing to finalize the EmPower+ application functionality in the MyEnergy portal. To ensure a seamless transition, additional testing and verification is being completed before finalizing a go-live date. Thank you for your understanding.
Existing and New EmPower+ Applications All existing and new EmPower+ applications will continue to use the current system until the migration to the MyEnergy portal is complete. Until then, the EmPower+ application page from MyEnergy will redirect you to the current EmPower+ application page.
Support Resources The following resources are available to assist you with utilizing the MyEnergy portal:
Knowledge Base Articles and Training Recordings: MyEnergy portal user guides are now active for EmPower+ and the Appliance Upgrade Program. These provide step-by-step instructions, best practices, troubleshooting tips and training recordings via the NYSERDA Knowledge Base.
Additional Support: If you have additional questions about NYSERDA programs, your application, or need assistance with the MyEnergy portal please submit the request support form on MyEnergy. A NYSERDA representative will be sent an email on your behalf.
Office Hours: Attend live office hours. Dates and times will be posted on the Contractor Support site.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. We are confident that MyEnergy will transform the way New Yorkers engage with clean energy programs, making it easier than ever to access the latest technologies and incentives.
Program/s: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: Project Photo Requirements Update Questions: Please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
Effective for EmPower+ project enrollments accepted by contractors on or after January 1, 2025, all pre and post installation pictures submitted as part of an EmPower+ project will need to be time-stamped and geo-tagged.
Section 8.2 of the Program Manual will be updated to reflect this change.
NYSERDA is considering investing in an enterprise subscription with CompanyCam which would enable contractors to produce geo-tagged pictures based on provided templates for program submission. It is intended that this service will be provided to you at no cost and if you are using other software options to create geo-tagged photos, you would not be required to switch to CompanyCam.
If there are any questions, please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.
To: Participating Contractors Regarding Programs:EmPower+ Summary:Staff Hours for Thanksgiving Contact: See below
NYSERDA wishes you and your family a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Please see below for EmPower+ program staff and implementation staff hours for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
NYSERDA: Closed Thursday, limited staffing Friday
CLEAResult: Closed Thursday and Friday
TRC Call Center: Closed Thursday, open Friday, EmPower+ Application Processing Closed Thursday and Friday
Participating contractors working in the field in need of emergency approval may contact Pete Hoke (518-409-5938) on Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29. For non-urgent matters, contact Contractor Support or (800) 284-9069; requests will be returned following the holiday in the order they were left.
The 1-866-NYSERDA /1-877-NYSMART number will not be staffed on Thursday, November 28, but will be open for regular hours on Friday November 29.
With the holiday, there will only be one EmPower+ incentive invoice processed during the week of November 25. Incentive invoicing processing will return to twice per week beginning the week of December 2.
Program/s: EmPower+ To: Participating Contractors Summary: EmPower+ Program Prior Services Check Questions: Please Contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069
In May 2024, in conjunction with the launch of IRA incentives, NYSERDA removed the three-year look back requirement as part of the EmPower+ application process. The three-year look back was initially established to limit a household that had reached the Program incentive cap from participating in EmPower+ again until three years had passed. The removal of the look back requirement allows households to realize more energy savings in a shorter time frame by removing the three-year wait between EmPower+ projects.
With the removal of the three-year look back, NYSERDA has implemented a prior services check. The purpose of this check is to ensure that the measures a participating contractor is proposing on an EmPower+ project are not duplicative of work that has been recently completed. Upon submission of an EmPower+ Application, TRC will note in the application file if an EmPower+ project was recently completed. When the application information is sent to NYHEP, CLEAResult will be notified that a recent EmPower+ project has been completed and they will ensure that the measures being proposed on the new project were not incentivized on a recently installed project.
If a participating contractor is planning on multiple projects at a household, the expectation is that the projects will follow a logical progression. For example, if the initial project includes $3,000 in air-sealing measures to prepare the home for a heat pump, the follow up project should not include an additional $6,000 in air-sealing, it should be focusing on the heat pump equipment. In addition, the participating contractor should not be charging for an additional audit. If the follow-on project is occurring within a reasonable time frame and there has been no significant changes at the residence, the contractor should be using the test-out information from the previous project. Likewise, energy education and direct install measures should not be charged to the second project as these measures should have been covered in the first project.
In addition, when multiple projects for the same address are to be submitted to the Program each individual project must stand on its own. Savings from the previous project cannot be leveraged to make the subsequent project meet Program requirements.
Finally, there can be only one open EmPower+ project at a residence at any given time. If a project is open and an EmPower+ Application is received for the residence from either the existing participating contractor or a new participating contractor the application will be denied until the existing EmPower+ project is completed. If there are any questions, please contact Contractor Support at 1-800-284-9069.