Ecology Action’s NetOne program helped medium and large commercial customers in California reduce energy use, lower utility costs, and access incentives for high-impact efficiency upgrades. Designed for businesses with significant annual energy use, NetOne focused on sectors where efficiency improvements could deliver meaningful climate and cost benefits.
Over five years, the program served more than 350 customers through more than 1,400 projects, secured over $12.6 million in customer incentives, saved more than 21.3 million kWh and 2.7 million therms, and delivered $23.6 million in total system benefit. These results positioned NetOne as one of the highest-performing third-party implementer programs in PG&E’s portfolio, delivering strong results relative to program dollars spent.
The Challenge
Commercial buildings are a major opportunity for climate impact because they often use large amounts of electricity and natural gas to power lighting, refrigeration, HVAC, and hot water systems. For medium and large businesses, efficiency upgrades can reduce operating costs and emissions, but projects are often slowed by complex utility requirements, changing regulations, technical documentation, incentive processing, and construction coordination.
NetOne was designed to address this gap by making energy efficiency projects more actionable for large commercial customers. The program aligned with Ecology Action’s mission of advancing equitable community climate solutions in high-GHG-emitting sectors by focusing on energy-intensive commercial markets where targeted retrofits could produce measurable reductions in energy use.
Our Approach
NetOne combined technical expertise, contractor coordination, project management, utility compliance support, financing support, and rebate/incentive processing to help customers move through energy efficiency projects more efficiently.
“Our customers are focused on running their businesses, not navigating utility programs. By managing the technical, administrative, and compliance requirements behind the scenes, we help remove barriers that might otherwise prevent high-impact energy efficiency projects from moving forward.” — Michelle Morales, Vice President, Utility Strategy & Operations, Ecology Action
The program focused on customers and facilities with high energy use, including grocery, hospitality, large commercial, office, retail, restaurants, multi-use buildings, and warehouse/storage sites. This targeting allowed the team to prioritize projects with the greatest potential for energy savings and cost-effective impact.
NetOne supported a defined set of high-impact energy efficiency measures, including interior and exterior lighting, anti-sweat heater refrigeration controls, adding doors to refrigeration cases, heat pump water heaters, and HVAC controls. These measures addressed major commercial energy loads while helping customers access available rebates and incentives.
A key innovation was NetOne’s use of Population NMEC, or Normalized Metered Energy Consumption, alongside deemed measure pathways. Population NMEC was a groundbreaking approach that helped streamline utility review and accelerate project turnaround. NetOne was one of the first implementer-led programs to use the Population-Based NMEC workflow.
The program’s success also depended on Ecology Action’s ability to navigate a changing California energy efficiency landscape. The team managed regulatory changes, shifting NMEC and deemed pathway rules, stricter compliance requirements, more intensive reporting, and changing measure-level details such as equipment specifications, climate zones, and eligible customer sectors.
The Outcomes
NetOne by the Numbers
- 350+ customers served
- 1,400+ projects completed
- $12.6M+ in customer incentives secured
- $23.6M in total system benefit
- 21.3M+ kWh avoided = 10,743 MTCO2e*
- 2.7M therms avoided = 14,286 MTCO2e*
- Total GHG reduction of 25,029 MTCO2e is equivalent to carbon sequestered by 413,857 tree seedlings grown for 10 years*
*Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency
“NetOne showed how targeted commercial energy efficiency can deliver measurable savings at scale while helping customers navigate the complex path from project idea to completed retrofit.” – Lore James, Director of Utility Programs and Strategy, Ecology Action
These results show the value of targeting commercial customers with high energy use and pairing technical support with hands-on project management. NetOne helped customers reduce utility costs through targeted retrofits while supporting broader energy efficiency and electrification goals.
Ecology Action
