November 2025
Member Spotlight
In 2025, we will recognize one member each month, providing an organizational profile and highlighting the member's accomplishments in the smart energy space.
About TEPRI
The Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI), a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is accelerating the move towards an energy system that is affordable, reliable and clean and supports thriving communities. They test solutions that integrate new technologies and diverse sources into our energy composition. TEPRI works with public and private stakeholders to demonstrate new models that can scale. Their work advances research on the energy needs of households that contend with low incomes, develops solutions to address those needs and establishes on-the-ground relationships to enable deployment.
Tools for Energy Stakeholders and Utilities
TEPRI creates web-based tools that help our energy partners better serve the needs of households with low incomes. For example, utilities who don’t have direct customer relationships can have a difficult time enrolling low-income customers in their energy efficiency programs as households are wary to provide income-information to contractors. TEPRI developed the Easier Energy Efficiency Eligibility Tool (E4-TX), a tool that automatically qualifies households based on where they live to make it easier for customers to enroll. Subscribers include Texas’ four major utilities: Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP and TNMP.
TEPRI hosts two web-based tools that help energy stakeholders map and understand the priorities, hot spots and challenges for communities with energy vulnerabilities. The first is TEPRI’s Energy Equity Explorer Tool, which was created in partnership with SEEA. The tool is designed to clarify the key energy metrics impacting communities across the Southeast. It focuses on energy burden, housing characteristics, and social vulnerability metrics, highlighting where they overlap.
TEPRI also produces The Community Voices in Energy Survey (CVES) dashboard, an interactive tool that visualizes key insights from over 6,500 low- and moderate-income households across Texas, with a focus on peoples’ priorities and challenges around affordable, reliable and clean energy.
Pilot & Scale Projects That Leverage Technology and Strategic Partnerships
TEPRI pilots innovations in the field to evaluate their value for
our neighbors who experience energy vulnerabilities. For example, they are partnering with nonprofit housing developer DreamBuild in South Texas to drive down the cost of solar by prepping affordable homes in the manufacturing facility and evaluating different system sizes to optimize savings vs. investment.
TEPRI is also pioneering a Resilience Hub model on two affordable multi-family developments in Arlington with partners Foundation Communities and Google. The two sites, which house over 500 families, will boast 24-hour outage support using solar, batteries and virtual power plant technology. Revenue generated from the system will go to providing services to tenants, including afterschool care and financial literacy.
