Low-Income Programs

MidAmerican Energy’s residential low-Income program provides financial incentives and education to encourage energy efficiency in existing low-income housing. The program is delivered through three separate components to meet the needs of different customer segments, including statewide weatherization, supplemental weatherization, and home energy reports. The first component, weatherization, encourages comprehensive energy efficiency improvements in existing low-income housing by providing free energy assessments and free on-site installation of heating, water heating, lighting, refrigeration, and insulation measures. The Iowa Department of Human Rights (IDHR), which manages a network of community action program (CAP) agencies, delivers the program by identifying qualifying households and delivering assessments and weatherization services. The Low-Income program supplements funding provided by the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program through a long-term contract with IDHR. The program also includes an education component for Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP)-eligible customers and a multifamily and institutional housing component. The second component, Energy Wise, is an education component of the program. Additionally, MidAmerican collects customer contributions through ICARE, a bill assistance program that provides 50% of all contributions greater than $250,000 towards low-income supplemental weatherization. 

Participating CAP agencies recruit Energy Wise Program workshop participants through day-to-day interactions with their LIHEAP clients. Each household that attends the training receives a take-home Energy Wise home savings kit. The third component is a Home Energy Report program for a select number of eligible customers. The reports are tailored to include low cost and no cost energy efficiency tips. The fourth component, multifamily, includes institutional housing and emergency shelters. The multifamily component is a joint utility program and is administered by The Energy Group, which provides assessment services and reports directly to the three investor-owned utilities.

In 2019, MidAmerica’s low-income programs achieved 2,014 MWh and 0.06 MMtherms in savings, while spending $7709,629 and $1,750,382 on electric and natural gas customers respectively. In 2019, the program served 16,463 electric and 12,169 natural gas low-income customers.

Multifamily Programs

MidAmerican Energy offers the Multifamily Housing program to promote efficiency strategies for existing multifamily properties and provides comprehensive on-site energy assessments, free low-cost efficiency measures, and a comprehensive assessment report that includes recommendations for both individual housing units and common areas. Any prescriptive or cost-effective custom energy efficiency measure is potentially eligible for rebate under the Multifamily Housing program. The Multifamily Housing program provides a comprehensive set of services and financial incentives to serve the varied needs of multifamily property owners, property managers, landlords, and renters in existing buildings. MidAmerican also offers an Income-Qualified Multifamily Housing Program.

The program includes direct install measures such as water-saving measures and LED lighting. The program also includes equipment and insulation measures, such as gas furnaces and boilers, water heaters, heat pumps, air conditioners, programmable thermostats, and insulation. Additionally, low-income multi-family properties, including institutional housing and emergency shelters, received enhanced rebates, up to 40 percent of installed cost, and free professional consultation throughout contractor bidding and equipment insulation.

In 2019, MidAmerica’s multifamily program achieved 1,415 MWh and 0.07 MMtherms in savings, while spending $617,695 and $290,893 on electric and natural gas customers respectively. In 2019, the program served 218 electric multifamily properties and 129 natural gas multifamily properties.

Last Updated: July 2021