Welcome to Plugged IN, PSEG Long Island’s new blog. Here you will find the latest information about how to lower your bills, how to save money upgrading your home or business, how we are improving reliability, and everything else about how we serve Long Island and the Rockaways.

We are kicking off Plugged IN during National Small Business Week. As vice president of customer service, this makes me the perfect person to write the very first post.

Small businesses are the backbone of the economy — on Long Island, in the Rockaways, and all across the nation. They are responsible for creating nearly two-thirds of new jobs in the country each year, and they employ more than half of all Americans.

If there’s one thing I know from working with our economic development team, it’s that saving money is more important to small business owners than anyone else. Every extra dollar doesn’t go to shareholders — it goes toward paying a mortgage, buying dinner, or paying an employee.

That’s why I’m so proud of what we are achieving at PSEG Long Island with our energy efficiency programs. It all starts with a free energy consultation, when an expert walks through the business, gathers historical usage data, and identifies appliances or fixtures that could be upgraded. We take all this information and create a report that’s custom-tailored to each individual business. Then we help identify every discount and rebate a business owner can utilize to make these upgrades affordable.

The end result is that these businesses save twice: Once when they purchase the new equipment, and then every month, when they save hundreds—or even thousands—on their electricity bill.

As an example, let’s look at the Park Bake Shop in Kings Park. Owner Gabe Shtanko was able to get nearly $23,000 in rebates for LED lighting and new refrigerator motor controls. They are expected to save more than $12,000 a year on their power bill.

“We weren’t sure where to start when it came to reducing energy costs,” Shtanko said. “PSEG Long Island made it easy and we’re now looking forward to savings for years to come.”

The Park Bake Shop isn’t the only business getting in on these offers. In 2015, our commercial customers completed more than 3,200 energy efficient projects, resulting in electric bill savings of $20 million. Of those projects, nearly 70 percent were small- and medium-sized businesses.

National Small Business Week is the ideal time to tell you about our program, but you can take advantage of it all year round. Just go to https://www.psegliny.com/page.cfm/SaveMoney to get started.