How Tower Grove Baptist Church re-invests in the community with demand response earnings
Highlights
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Facility
Elementary school and church
Program
Ameren Missouri’s business DR program
Benefit
Funds to reinvest in the facility and community
Overview
Michael Gregory is Senior Pastor at Tower Grove Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and in that position he oversees quite a bit of activity on the church’s large campus. From Monday to Friday, the school on campus teaches classes from preschool to 8th grade—as Gregory puts it, that means “we’ve got kiddos all over the place from 6:30 in the morning to about 6 pm.” Then on weekends, the Church holds one service on Saturdays and four on Sundays.
Their Story
All of this activity leads to a lot of energy use, and that made Tower Grove Baptist Church a good candidate for participation in demand response. Ameren Missouri’s Business Demand Response (BDR) program provides payments to large energy users that agree to reduce their energy demand during times of grid stress. Ameren partners with Enel, a leading energy solutions and demand response provider, to manage the demand response program and make it simple for Ameren Missouri customers to earn payments.
The payments are a major benefit for Gregory and Tower Grove Baptist Church. But as a pastor, he also had other reasons for deciding to enroll in demand response.
The benefits of demand response
Payments for reducing energy
Like so many organizations, Gregory said Tower Grove Baptist Church is always keeping a close eye on their budget. Demand response has helped not only by creating new revenue, but also by inspiring them to rethink their energy use generally.
“We have a budget every year, and we’re always looking to reduce costs,” he said. “So if we can cut back on our energy and get paid, that allows money to be used elsewhere.”
Funds for reinvesting
Businesses can use the funds from demand response for any number of purposes—and like many other businesses Tower Grove Baptist Church used some to re-invest in their facility and repairs. But they’ve also used them to help support their community, too.
“We took those funds from demand response and just put them elsewhere,” Gregory said. “Some on repairs, some on helping out people within the community. We were happy to use those funds on something other than paying a bill.”
Great service from Enel
Gregory said his experience with Enel has been good—the Enel team has been clear and helpful during the enrollment process.
“They were very informative,” Gregory said. “I met with the team along with my facility manager, and they gave us some insight on how to participate. It really wasn’t complicated; it was basic things we could do that would reduce energy.”
Recommending Enel
In all, Gregory said he’s not only happy with his experience, he’s glad to participate in a program that has changed the way they think about energy.