The Energy Coordinating Agency’s mission is to help people conserve energy and promote a sustainable and socially equitable energy future for all.

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To accomplish the mission, ECA designs and delivers programs, services and training in energy efficiency, clean energy, home preservation, heating repair and replacement, coordination of energy-related benefits access, and other sustainability practices.

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Between 1983 and 1984, residential gas terminations in the Philadelphia increased from 3,000 to 30,000. Low-income customers who could not keep pace with the rapidly rising cost of natural gas were referred to as “deadbeats”, and the only bill payment assistance program available, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), was so poorly administered that the state failed to spend its federal allocation and was forced to return more than $20 million to the federal government. In response, a group of religious, government and civic leaders created the ECA in late 1984 to provide lasting solutions to the energy problems of low-income families.

 

Since then, ECA has built and expanded a citywide network of Neighborhood Energy Centers, assumed administration of the City’s Heater Hotline, and become a provider of federal and utility weatherization programming for Philadelphia and Delaware. In 2009, ECA launched the Knight Green Jobs Training Center, and over 5500 trainees have benefitted from educations in auditing, air sealing, hazardous material remediation, and green reconstruction. In 2018, the KGJTC entered discussions with Johnson Controls International, and in 2019 Governor Tom Wolf headlined the ribbon-cutting of a commercial HVAC lab. In 2022, PECO opened a Gas Technician lab within the KGJTC.

Each year, ECA accomplishes the following for low income families in Philadelphia:

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• Weatherizes approximately 400 homes

• Repairs or replaces 5,000 heaters

• Provides energy counseling and utility bill payment assistance for more than 6,000 families through our 15 Neighborhood Energy Centers

• Conducts do-it-yourself home weatherization workshops for 2,000 families

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Each year, through ECA's nationally accredited IREC, ESCO, EPA, and American Red Cross programs, we train and credential 500 men and women, including veterans and returning citizens, whose diversity reflects the city we serve, for high demand, clean energy careers with a bright future. These include: BPI Building Energy Analyst, BPI WHASI, Solar Installer, Commercial HVAC, EPA Lead Safety, and OSHA 10.

 

Each year, ECA averts 41,444.80 metric tons of carbon emissions through these measures.