POWERGRAMS

17 ABC Trust marks 25 years COMMUNITY Willene Ellio said keeping the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter has been a struggle, especially since her husband, Ronnie, suffered a stroke and can no longer make household repairs. With two aging air conditioning window units and one space heater, Willene said receiving a helping hand from the Alabama Business Charitable (ABC) Trust Fund has been "life- changing." In August, the Ellios' old equipment was replaced with a new heat pump through an ABC grant. Increased insulation and weatherstripping was also installed in their home to make it more energy efficient. Willene said she noticed an immediate difference. In just the first 15 days, the couple's energy usage dropped by about 30 percent. "Being chosen for this grant is something we never really expected to happen to us," said Willene, who lives in Wadley. This month, the ABC Trust Fund is celebrating 25 years of providing families assistance in paying energy bills during times of dire need. It also supports programs that promote energy efficiency for nonprofit organizations and low-income households. Since it was created, the Trust has provided $30,957,845 in energy assistance funding to Alabamians. A LOOK BACK In 1992, Alabama Power was seeking a beer way to provide temporary assistance to people who were disabled, had become unemployed or were facing other crisis situations that prevented them from paying their energy bills. With limited resources, Alabama Power needed an innovative solution. Company leaders decided to partner with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) and community action agencies across the state to form the ABC Trust Fund. "We recognized that rather than trying to develop a new infrastructure ourselves, we could take advantage of programs that were already in existence and make some necessary tweaks to fit our objectives," said Chris Womack, Southern Company executive vice president and president of External Affairs. Womack was part of the Alabama Power team that was instrumental in geing the Trust off the ground. "It was a wonderful decision to form that collaboration with community action agencies that were already providing support and energy assistance, and it's exciting that 25 years later, the program is still in existence and still doing very well." HOW TRUST WORKS The Trust provides energy assistance through several programs. Its Home Forward Energy Grant helps families like the Ellios. The Trust partners with 23 Alabama community action agencies to help families apply for grants that can pay for insulation, home weatherization or other improvements to lower energy bills. Efficiency Forward Grants, on the other hand, provide funding to nonprofit organizations to make their facilities more energy efficient. The Trust supports the Emergency Assistance and Cooling programs, which help customers who meet certain criteria with their energy bill payments. One of the recent Efficiency Forward Grant recipients was the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, which annually feeds more than 645,000 people in 12 counties. The food bank was facing a hard decision when its 20-year- old heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit began to fail. But thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Trust, the food bank has replaced its old unit with a heat pump. Womack

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