POWERHOUSE: Hands-on energy education

The POWERHOUSE™ Energy Investigation Program teaches school students and their families about energy use, generation and delivery. LCRA offers the POWERHOUSE program to its wholesale electric customers and they sponsor the program to schools within their service areas.

Through POWERHOUSE, students get a hands-on understanding of energy generation and consumption by becoming energy “detectives.” Using a walk-through guide, students investigate and record their households’ energy-using features. The results of each student’s investigation are entered into a software program, which analyzes the data and produces a personalized energy profile. Back in the classroom, students review their personalized home energy profile, play energy-related games and take part in an interactive review of the program information.

LCRA developed the POWERHOUSE program in 1998 and offers it to its wholesale electric customers as an optional service. Since its foundation, the program has educated over 70,000 Texas students on how to use less energy and save natural resources.