Are you interested in saving energy, winning prizes and supporting your local community?

(The following blog article originally appeared on the San Diego Energy Challenge blog at http://blog.sdenergychallenge.com )

We’ve got an exciting announcement for you:

From now through November 30, SDG&E is sponsoring a new contest called the San Diego Energy Challenge. Eligible SDG&E customers will have a chance to win prizes including iPads and gift cards for saving energy at home! They can simultaneously compete on behalf of their local San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) middle school to win cash grants for school supplies. The San Diego Energy Challenge has been designed to help customers manage their home energy use in a fun, easy to use online dashboard. It’s an innovative program backed by the US Department of Energy that empowers customers and helps the local community.

We’ve started this school year off with a bang; $3,000 in cash grants have already been awarded to six schools! These schools have each won $500 grants by getting members of their community to sign-up and save energy in the San Diego Energy Challenge during Reduce Your Use events.

SDG&E staff presented the winning principals with their sizeable prizes on August 23 at the SDUSD Back-To-School Management Meeting! The principals were certainly happy to receive their big checks and excited to learn more about how they could get their school involved in the challenge. The following six schools won a $500 cash grant because community members like you signed up for the San Diego Energy Challenge to support them:

• Pacific Beach Middle School
• Farb Middle School
• De Portola Middle School
• Dana Middle School
• Mann Middle School
• Lewis Middle School

And there’s more great news ahead! As much as $40,000 in cash grants will be awarded to eligible SDUSD schools based on participation and enrollment. You have the opportunity to help any one of 39 local schools’ chances at winning the $10,000 grand prize by signing up now!

The schools are appreciative of the community support and can’t wait for more people to sign up and help them win. If you’ve got two minutes and live in an eligible SDUSD neighborhood, take the time now to increase your school’s chances of winning! 

Please take two minutes now to do the following:

1. Go to www.sdenergychallenge.com/schools
2. Sign up using your email address and create a password OR via your Facebook account
3. Connect your eligible SDG&E account (make sure you have your billing statement or MyAccount open to fetch your SDG&E account number)
4. Select your school to support!

Support your local middle school by getting started now: www.sdenergychallenge.com/schools.

An important note about the San Diego Energy Challenge by SDG&E:
Only SDG&E customers in eligible zip codes can compete (you must live in a SDUSD neighborhood). The San Diego Energy Challenge is a pilot program not yet available to all customers.