Energy Council: Efficiency plan savings to total $8B
A week after being named the most energy efficient state in the country, Massachusetts took an additional step Monday to set ambitious, nation-leading energy efficiency goals for the next three years.
Capping off nearly a year of work, the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council approved a resolution of support for the 2016-2018 Massachusetts Joint Statewide Three-Year Electric and Gas Energy Efficiency Investment Plan, which directs the state's utility companies to tap into all the energy efficiency opportunities that cost less than buying electricity from power plants, and sets efficiency goals driven by Green Communities Act of 2008 requirements.
"It is a key way that we can continue to reduce and stabilize the rising cost of energy in Massachusetts," Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Judith Judson, who chairs the council, told the News Service. "And it maintains our commitment to clean energy and energy efficiency so we can meet our Global Warming Solutions Act goals for greenhouse gas emissions reductions."
Laid out in the plan are benchmarks for savings in annual retail sales of electricity (2.93 percent) and gas (1.24 percent), the most aggressive goals in the nation, Judson said. The plan also targets energy efficiency during periods of peak consumer usage.
"That tends to have higher savings and even more emissions reductions," she said. "So it provides a lot of value to look at reducing energy consumption during peak periods."
The plan is expected to deliver $8.13 billion in economic benefits and energy savings over the three-year period, Judson said. And the environmental benefits the plan is expected to deliver are equivalent to removing an estimated 408,000 cars from the road, according to the Acadia Center, a nonprofit clean energy research and advocacy organization.
The statewide plan and those of individual utility companies must be filed with the Department of Public Utilities by Oct. 30, Judson said, and then DPU regulators will begin a 90-day review process.
Last week, and for a fifth consecutive year, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) named Massachusetts the most energy efficient state in the country, edging out California for top honors.
"Massachusetts continues to lead the nation in energy efficiency and is close to finalizing aggressive energy savings targets for 2016-2018," ACEEE wrote in its report card. "With other states close on its heels and committed to improving energy efficiency, Massachusetts will need to continue achieving high levels of savings in the utility sector, commit to continually updating building codes, and work to better benchmark energy use in the private sector."
Monday's plan approval comes while energy is hot topic on Beacon Hill, with Gov. Charlie Baker and legislative leaders striving to set policy that will help the state meet emissions reduction goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act, which set economy-wide goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 statewide levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Baker has filed separate bills to authorize long-term contracts for hydroelectric power from Canada and to increase the net metering cap for solar generators in an effort to more quickly meet the 2020 goal of 1,600 megawatts of solar generation.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last week that the House will address the solar net metering cap in a standalone piece of legislation before taking up a more comprehensive, omnibus energy bill, which likely won't happen until 2016.
The Senate has already taken action to lift the net metering cap, and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg has said the Senate is waiting for the House to move additional energy issues, though he spoke recently of finding the right balance between energy sources to contain costs, reduce emissions and maximize efficiency.
"The question is how much green and how fast, how much conservation and how fast," Rosenberg said during a conversation with reporters earlier this month.
He added, "By the time we finish this work there should be a clear understanding of what our energy plan is and what we're trying to do over the next at least 10 to 20 years."
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