This Summer, Seattle Seattle City Light is challenging customers to a put an energy saving spin on their most creative, tasty recipes.
The “Cookin’ with Kilowatts” contest asks customer to create or use an original recipe that they would typically bake in an oven or on a stovetop and use a cooking method that uses less electricity.
“Using electricity wisely reduces your impact on the environment and saves you money,” City Light Conservation Resources Director Glenn Atwood said. “Cookin’ with Kilowatts is a fun way to teach our customers more efficient methods of cooking with the added bonus of keeping the kitchen a bit cooler during the summer.”
Gift cards from PCC Natural Markets will be awarded to customers for first, second and third place. First prize is a $250 gift card with a $150 gift card for second and a $100 gift card for third. The customer with the winning recipe also will be featured in City Light publications and on the utility’s website.
Every customer who participates will receive a Seattle City Light pot holder and chef’s hat, while supplies last.
To enter, the customer must live in Seattle City Light’s service territory, only one entry per household. The recipe must be an original recipe that uses an appliance that is more energy efficient than an oven or stovetop. Complete rules, prize information, contest details and the entry form are available on Seattle City Light’s contest page at seattle.gov/light/recipe.
The contest is the latest chapter in Seattle City Light’s long history of promoting energy efficiency and even with cooking.
From the 1930s until the 1970s, City Light employed home economists to teach people about new household technologies using electricity, such as electric ovens, and help them troubleshoot problems. Each month, the utility would share a recipe with customers in its Light Reading newsletter. Perhaps the best known of these home economists was Mary Norris, who worked at City Light from 1952 to 1977, actively engaging the community with helpful household tips.
In 1977, Seattle City Light became the first U.S. utility to create a division dedicated to energy conservation and has been a national leader in energy efficiency ever since.
Last year alone, City Light rebates, a direct install program for compact fluorescent light bulbs, Twist & Save lighting discounts and incentives for commercial energy efficiency enhancements helped the utility’s customers take steps that will reduce their electricity consumption by about 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours over the life span of the energy efficiency measures they’ve used. That’s enough electricity to power 142,800 typical Seattle homes for one year and amounts to a savings of more than $91 million.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.