Manitoba Hydro’s LED Promotional Campaign Wins 2015 Energy Star Award

Manitoba Hydro was recently awarded Canada’s 2015 Energy Star Market Transformation Award for its fall 2014 Power Smart residential light emitting diode (LED) lighting program. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) presents the award annually to recognize the best energy efficiency promotional campaign of the year, selected from campaigns delivered throughout the provinces. Winners must have demonstrated excellence in promoting the most energy-efficient product, technology or service available on the market in this country.

Launched in the fall of 2014 in partnership with local retailers, the program’s goals were to encourage customers to purchase Energy Star-certified LED bulbs and to educate them about the benefits of LED lighting. Customers received an instant 50% off rebate when they purchased bulbs from participating retailers. Manitoba Hydro heavily promoted the campaign — 25 Light Years in Every Bulb — and nearly 200,000 LED bulbs were purchased during the one-month promotion.
As a result of the program’s success, Manitoba Hydro launched a second campaign in spring 2015 that included 11 participating retailers across the province. Close to 50,000 households participated in the two campaigns, saving customers more than $1.8 million a year on their electricity bills.

“LEDs are the most energy efficient lighting technology on the market, using 80% less energy than incandescent lights,” says Lloyd Kuczek, Vice-President, Customer Care & Energy Conservation for Manitoba Hydro. “Our goal with these programs is to help residential customers learn more about energy efficient technologies so they can adopt them in their own homes and reduce their energy bill.”

This is Manitoba Hydro’s fourth Energy Star award.