LOS ANGELES, May 11, 2010 – Southern California Gas Co. (The Gas Company) announced today that more than $23 million in rebates and incentives are available this year to business customers for qualifying energy-efficiency projects – the largest pool of incentive money in the utility’s 140-year history.

        The Gas Company made the announcement today before over 250 business representatives at the 5th Annual Energy Efficiency Expo in Downey, Calif. 

        “These rebates and incentives can go a long way to help businesses through challenging economic times,” said Mike Allman, president and chief executive officer for The Gas Company.  “By practicing energy efficiency, customers can meet a variety of needs by saving money, helping the environment, and using natural resources wisely.”
 
        “The Gas Company gave us $30,000 in 2007, $4,000 in 2008 and $12,000 in 2009,” said Maria Elena Prado of Juanita’s Foods, one of the companies featured at the Expo. “We’ve been coming back year after year; we continuously upgrade our facility.”

        Business owners and representatives learned about The Gas Company’s On-Bill Financing program which helps fund a wide variety of efficiency improvement projects up to $100,000 with interest-free loans.  They also learned how the utility can identify process improvements that can help save energy, lower operating costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  In addition to the variety of assessment tools to help business customers identify convenient energy efficiency improvements, rebates are available for more than 100 pieces of qualifying energy-efficient equipment, such as steam traps, insulation, boilers, water heaters, and a variety of foodservice equipment.

        The utility’s incentives cover many other types of natural gas equipment, as well as energy-saving projects. The incentive payouts are based on the amount of natural gas saved, and they often reach several thousands of dollars per project.

        For more information, business owners and representatives can visit The Gas Company’s Web site at www.socalgas.com/energyefficiency.

        The Gas Company also offers energy-efficiency programs for its residential customers, which feature rebates on qualifying furnaces, dishwashers, water heaters, clothes washers, and insulation. For more information, visit www.socalgas.com/residential/savemoney.

        The Gas Company’s energy-efficiency programs are subject to change without notice and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis as long as funding is available.  These programs are funded by California utility customers and administered by The Gas Company under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

        Southern California Gas Co. is the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, providing safe and reliable energy to 20.5 million consumers through 5.7 million meters in more than 500 communities.  Southern California Gas Co. ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Residential Natural Gas Service in the Western United States,” according to the 2009 study by J.D. Power and Associates*.  The company’s service territory encompasses approximately 20,000 square miles in diverse terrain throughout Central and Southern California, from Visalia to the Mexican border.  Southern California Gas Co. is a regulated subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE). Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company.  To learn more, go to www.socalgas.com.

*About the J.D. Power and Associates study: Southern California Gas Company received the highest numerical score among gas utilities in the Western U.S. in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM. Study based on 54,405 total interviews with U.S. residential gas customers measuring 15 utilities in the West (AZ, CA, ID, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY). Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in September 2008-July 2009. Your experiences may vary.

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