ROANOKE, Va. – Through a partnership with Appalachian Power and its TakeChargeVA Small Business Direct Install (SBDI) Program, the Roanoke Rescue Mission was able to replace the lighting in two of its facilities.

Through the SBDI program, the Rescue Mission received $13,350, which will cover 100 percent of the cost of the new lighting. The LED lamps will also provide the Rescue Mission with lower maintenance and lower electricity cost.

“This project was important because we had low light situations because of the old bulbs,” said Randy Chiang, maintenance manager at the Rescue Mission. “To do facilities like this and pay for every individual bulb would be very expensive. Through Appalachian Power, we were able to get them free and that is a big benefit to us.”  

“These new lights not only offer better lighting and cost savings, but more importantly, it offered the Rescue Mission an opportunity to become an even more attractive facility to those in our community that are coming here in a time of crisis,” added Kevin Berry, Rescue Mission community outreach manager.

With the new lights installed, the Rescue Mission is expected to save an estimated 84,700 gross kilowatts per hour annually. That amount is equivalent to 4,100 gallons of gasoline or the annual electricity use of seven homes.

Appalachian Power’s Energy Efficiency & Consumer Programs Manager Kevin Brown said he is excited that the SBDI program was able to help the Rescue Mission and hopes that other small businesses see this as an opportunity to contact APCo to see if they can save money too.

“We try to partner with as many small businesses as we can to try to help them understand how their place of business is using energy,” Brown said. “The goal is to help them find ways to be more energy efficient in their business and hopefully help them find ways to save cost moving forward.”

Visit TAKECHARGEVA to see if the SBDI program can help your Virginia small business.

Appalachian Power has 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is part of American Electric Power, which is focused on building a smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions. AEP’s approximately 16,700 employees operate and maintain the nation’s largest electricity transmission system and more than 224,000 miles of distribution lines to efficiently deliver safe, reliable power to nearly 5.5 million customers in 11 states. AEP is also one of the nation’s largest electricity producers with approximately 31,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including 5,900 megawatts of renewable energy.