Still have questions?
1 General Questions
-
The Olivine Community is based on the idea that great things happen when we all work together. When you join the Olivine Community, you will receive notices to reduce your home energy use on occasions when there is a large, unexpected demand for energy in your area or when the air quality is worse than normal. When you reduce energy usage in your home, the power plants don’t have to produce as much energy, so there is less pollution created near you. Your energy utility saves money and the savings get passed on to you. Olivine, Inc. is a California-based company focused on helping the state meet its ambitious renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals. Olivine runs innovative programs for cities, counties and utilities that help their customers increase access to cost and energy saving initiatives. To learn more about Olivine, please visit www.olivineinc.com
-
The Fresno Energy Program is an offering of The Olivine Community which brings together the Fresno community to earn money while working together to save energy, improve air quality and fight climate change. The Olivine Community has other similar offerings in other parts of California that are tailored to the local needs of residents.
-
We recommend you contact PG&E by calling the number on your bill, or at 1-800-743-5000 and asking them to verify the Fresno Energy Program.
2 Questions about the Fresno Energy Program Benefits
-
As a participant in the Fresno Energy Program, you join other concerned citizens in your local neighborhoods and work together to reduce electricity use, costs, and air pollution. This program creates opportunities for all by providing financial incentives for your participation in surveys and energy saving events. Small actions you take in your home to reduce electricity use during high demand periods aggregate to a larger impact by working with others in your community. By working together, your actions contribute towards reducing the demand for energy, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and stress on the electric grid. The more you participate, the more incentives you are eligible for and the less Fresno needs to rely on heavy polluting power plants to operate in your area. A win-win!
-
The Fresno Energy Program is sponsored by PG&E and represents the utility’s support to The Olivine Community. The Olivine team and PG&E work closely together to implement the Fresno Energy Program and enable success for the residents.
-
This program is focused on eliminating the pollution created in Fresno by natural gas peaker power plants used to supply peak electric load. Peaker plants are normally required to operate between the hours of 4 pm and 10 pm, when the demand for electricity is high and solar energy output is ramping down. The Fresno Program will reduce energy demand during 4-10 pm, or shift energy demand to times of the day when renewable energy is available for the grid, thereby helping reduce the need to run local peaker plants and reducing local pollution. The greater the participation in the program and the energy saving events, the greater the impact on reducing pollution in your community.
3 Questions about the Fresno Energy Program
-
The Fresno Energy Program is a limited-time opportunity to participate and earn money for saving electricity in your home. The timeline for the program is as follows:
- Program enrollment from January – September 2020.
- Participants will take the Home Energy Survey after successful enrollment during January – June 2020.
- Fresno residents enrolled in the program will then participate in energy saving events from July 2020 – March 2021.
- Participants will take the Customer Experience Survey between April- June 2021.
- The program will be completed by December 2021.
-
The Olivine community seeks to affect change at the local level and therefore focuses on communities in limited geographical areas. As such, the Fresno Energy Program is focused on a small geographic area in South-Central Fresno. The program implementation results and input from the Home Energy Survey and the Customer Experience Survey will be analyzed and used to design future programs and services that will be expanded to other parts of Fresno and/or California. It is important you participate in this program in order to make your voice heard and influence the design of future programs.
-
Your privacy is very important to us. Any information we collect will never be made public in any way that can be used to identify you. All information will be aggregated and made anonymous. Please refer to our privacy policy for more information.
-
No- this program is completely voluntary and you will always have control over your home’s electricity consumption. We will never take control of your air-conditioner or any other appliance or device in your home. It will be your choice how to participate in an energy saving request and what actions to take to reduce your electricity use.
-
After the Fresno Energy Programs ends, we will use the input from both surveys and the energy usage observed during Energy Savings events to help our efforts in designing future programs that are tailored to the needs of the Fresno community along with exploring ways in which we can create additional opportunities for you to earn money!
4 Questions about Program Enrollment
-
To participate in the Fresno Energy Program, you have to have or open an online PG&E account, access the Olivine web/mobile app and follow the enrollment steps. As part of the enrollment process, you have to agree to share your utility data with Olivine and agree to take simple actions to reduce electricity use in your home during an energy saving event. You get paid for participating in energy saving events and responding to two short surveys. We invite you to encourage your friends, family, neighbors and others in your community to enroll in the program, and you get paid a referral bonus for every successful enrollment in the program.
-
We will need to verify the information entered during the signup process, such as your PG&E account, your zip code and any potential participation conflicts, as well as ensure that we can receive your meter data from PG&E. Once we have verified these items, we can complete the enrollment process and officially enroll you in the program.
-
It may take us up to a week to verify enrollment; this depends on how quickly we can receive your meter data from PG&E.
-
You will receive a welcome email, followed by a link to the Participant Survey.
-
No, enrollment and incentives are limited to one per household, however, all members of your household may sign up for the app to get access to home energy usage data insights and receive valuable tips on how to reduce energy costs. Just use the login credentials that were set up to enroll for the program.
-
No. You can choose to do any combination of activities to earn incentives. We encourage you to participate in all activities in order to maximize your financial benefit.
-
Yes. You can disenroll at any time. Contact us to let us know you no longer want to participate. Call the Fresno Energy Program customer support center at 866-482-8472 or email us at Ask@fresnoenergyprogran.com
-
No. The app will always be free.
-
No. You will never need to buy anything to earn rewards, or participate in the program.
-
You are a PG&E customer if your household receives electrical service from PG&E. The best way to verify your electrical service is to check your monthly utility bill. You are still considered a PG&E customer if the bill is in sent to someone other than yourself in your household.
-
Yes, as long as you have access to your PG&E online account or have the information necessary to create one, which can be found on your energy bill. If you need help setting up an online account, please use the PG&E customer support number: 1 (800) 743-5000
-
Yes. The logins are the same.
5 Questions about Energy Events
-
The Fresno Energy Program will request participating households to move energy usage into the Energy Event period. During the time of the event, move high energy use activities that you would normally do at other times to the event period. These Events will be scheduled from 11 am – 1 pm on select weekends in the months of February – March.
You will be notified of an upcoming Energy Event the day before through the program mobile/web app, email and via text message to your phone. The notification request will inform you about the time and duration of the event, and also give you an opportunity to ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ the event.
A reminder will be sent approximately 30-minutes before the requested time. Make sure to move your energy usage for the entire length of the requested time.
-
Moving our energy usage to the middle of the day helps the grid by making sure we don’t let clean, renewable solar energy go to waste when it’s most available. The event days will be called for especially mild and sunny days.
This also helps reduce the need to use dirty polluting power plants in the evening to meet our energy demand in the evening when clean energy is less available; promoting grid stability and cleaner air for your community!
-
You have complete flexibility on what action you choose to take to move your energy consumption during an event request.
Examples include:
- Doing your laundry
- Running your dishwasher
- Charging your devices
- Cooking or baking if you are using an electric stove or oven.
- Vacuuming
- Watching TV
-
There are multiple ways to respond. Please see the below list for instructions on each.
- Olivine Community App: Open the Olivine Community App and select “Ok” or “Decline” on the event notification.
- Email: Select the “Accept” or “Decline” button in the email received from ask@fresnoenergyprogram.com
- Text Message (if enabled): Reply “Accept” or “Decline to the text message.
-
If you wish to be notified and respond to event requests over text, please follow the instructions below.
- In your Olivine Community App, go to Settings > Account > and Select Add phone number
- On the next page, enter your mobile phone number and select Send Code
- A 6 digit code will be sent shortly to the phone number entered that you will need to enter to validate and complete set up text message notifications
-
Once your electricity use information is ready to view, you will be sent a message notifying you to check your app. You will be able to view how you did in the app. There will be a graph displaying your energy use before, during, and right after, the time you were asked to move your electricity use. You will also have a chance to see your typical energy use.
-
No. The financial rewards are not tied to your household’s performance during an event period. You will receive your reward payment as long as you respond to an event.
-
No. There is no commitment to modify electricity usage in an Energy Event, but you will miss an opportunity to earn rewards. You will not get paid if you ignore an Energy Event notification. If you are unable to participate in an event, you can press the ‘Decline’ button on your app and let us know your reason for declining the request.
-
Absolutely! There is no commitment to participate in an Energy Event, but you may miss an opportunity to earn rewards. You can press the ‘Decline’ button on your app and let us know the reason for not being able to participate. You will not be paid if you ignore a notification for an Energy Event, you will not get paid.
6 Questions about Payments:
-
You can potentially earn up to $250 in this program. You get paid for participating in the two surveys, participating in energy saving events, and referring others to join the program. The multiple ways you can earn money are the following:
- Bonus Enrollment ($50): Complete your enrollment in the program.
-
Home Energy Survey ($30): Tell us how you use electricity and help identify energy use and cost reduction opportunities.
-
Energy Saving Events (Up to $100): Take simple actions to save energy during these events and get paid. There will be 2-4 events per month for 1-2 hours in duration.
-
Customer Experience Survey ($30): Provide feedback on your participation experience and help design future programs.
-
Bonus Referrals ($40): For every successful enrollment (limit 10)
-
Yes. Bonus referrals are limited to ten per household. Bonus referrals are for every successful enrollment in the program.
-
The fastest way to get paid for a successful enrollment is to tell your friends and family to give us your name and email during the enrollment process. You can also reach out to us with the name and address of someone you helped successfully enroll in the program. You will get paid after we have successfully verified the enrollment status of your referral.
-
Yes. The mobile/web application will show you your level of participation in the Fresno Energy Program and your earnings status.
-
You will receive your payment as an electric gift (e-gift) card sent to the email address associated with your account. The e-gift card will be sent as a Tango Card Reward Link. Please contact us if you have a preferred email address you would like your Reward Link sent to instead. Call the Fresno Energy Program customer support center at 866-482-8472 or email us at Ask@fresnoenergyprogran.com
-
Your e-gift cards will arrive in your email inbox promptly after participating in a survey and/or energy saving event in the following schedule:
- Home Energy Survey ($30): Payment will be issued within 7-10 days of survey completion
- Energy Saving Events (Up to $170): Payments will be made monthly for each event you participate in and will be issued on the first Monday of the month.
- Bonus Referrals ($20): Payments are made on the last day of every month and disbursed as a single Reward Link for all, new referrals that enrolls into the program (limit 10).
- Customer Experience Survey ($ 30): Payment will be issued within 7-10 days of survey completion
- If you don’t receive your reward email, please check your promotions or spam folders. If you still don’t see your e-gift card, please contact Fresno Energy Program customer support center at 866-482-8472 or email us at Ask@fresnoenergyprogran.com
-
It’s Easy! Follow these steps:
- Click your Reward Link and you’ll be taken to a page with reward options.
- Choose a Visa e-gift card or other reward option
- Select the value of the card (you cannot choose more than your remaining balance).
- Select “Add to Cart”.
- If you have remaining balance and would like to choose another option, repeat Steps 2-4.
- Once you have selected all the e-gift cards you want, click “Checkout”.
- Enter your name and your email address and check the box acknowledging the terms.
- Click “Complete My Order”.
- Your e-gift card(s) will arrive in your email inbox.
-
At this time, you need to spend each Reward Link value independently. However, this is a requested feature and will be available in the future.
-
Reward Links cannot be returned. They can be used to purchase retail gift cards or make donations to charities. If you want, you can also re-gift it! Simply edit the email at checkout to send to a friend or family member.
-
Reward Link balances do not expire unless otherwise noted in the original email containing your Reward Link.
-
Once an order is fulfilled it cannot be canceled, returned, or exchanged for a different retail gift card. Please ensure that your order is correct and the recipient email address is accurate before placing your order.
-
Absolutely! Most electronic retail gift cards we offer can be used in-store by simply printing out the e-gift card and presenting it to the cashier. However, some retailers have special instructions for in-store use. Be sure to double-check how your retailer wants you to use your gift card in store before you go to the store.
-
Physical cards are granted on a case by case basis. Please contact Fresno Energy Program customer support at 866-482-8472 or Ask@fresnoenergyprogran.com
-
For security reasons, electronic gift cards are usually sent with a code/pin. If you encounter an error when redeeming your card, this is typically the result of issues with cutting and pasting the code. Be sure there are no extra spaces added when entering the code into the retailer’s activation field. If you need help, contact the Tango Card customer support team at cs@tangocard.com or 1.877.558.2646.
-
No. You can choose one of our many gift card or non-profit donation options, or you can send your balance to someone else as a gift.
-
Once you receive an e-gift card, the merchant provides customer support directly to you, just like any gift card. You can find the contact find contact information in the email containing your gift card. We will work with Tango Card to assist as much as we can. However, once you have received the e-gift card, it is best to start with the merchant’s customer support team. Some retailers have special instructions.
-
Since all retail gift cards are delivered electronically via email, we can simply resend it to you. Just Contact Us at 866-482-8472 or Ask@fresnoenergyprogran.com. Please note that Gift Cards are just like cash. If lost, their value can be used by someone else.
