Latest news with #MassSave
Boston Globe
01-08-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Heat pump owners to get a break on electric rates to lower winter costs
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up To enroll in the rate program, customers with heat pumps need to contact their utility by November 1. Households with heat pumps installed through Mass Save are automatically enrolled in the rates. Advertisement Mass Save is an incentive program funded by surcharges on utility bills. It offers income-based rebates on heat pump installations and other energy efficiency services at low or no cost. 'With heat pump adoption picking up statewide, these discount rates will further help make a dent in winter heating bills,' said DPU Chair James Van Nostrand in a statement. 'The seasonal rates we approved for heat pump households puts money back into customers' pockets.' Advertisement Despite their name, heat pumps can both heat and cool buildings. They heat homes by extracting heat from outside air and cool homes by extracting heat from indoor air. The technology itself is not new, but earlier versions of heat pumps struggled in cold climates such as New England's. Buildings accounted for about 30 percent of greenhouse gases in Massachusetts in 2021. The state has encouraged residents to transition to heat pumps because their energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions align with the state's More than 90,000 households installed heat pumps through Mass Save from January 2021 through July, 2024, according to state data. The state aims to have heat pumps in 100,000 households by 2025, and 500,000, or approximately The vast majority of households in the state – Critics of Massachusetts' energy policies say the state is not considering that costs of climate initiatives and subsidies. Paul Craney, director of the conservative research group Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said that many households can't afford to convert heating and cooling systems. 'I haven't heard Governor [Maura] Healey answer how much the net zero by 2050 will cost or who will pay for it,' he said. 'Lower and middle class folks are being told they have to buy heat pumps, but it hurts their paychecks the most.' Advertisement Installing a heat pump system to heat and cool an entire home Those who wish to take advantage of federal incentives would need to install heat pumps by December of this year after President Trump's One Big Beautiful bill that eliminated clean energy incentives granted during the Biden administration. The state Department of Energy Resources and climate advocacy groups call for even Yogev Toby can be reached at
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Healey energy bill gets bump from municipal officials
BOSTON (SHNS) – Local government officials got an earful from residents as energy bills soared this winter, and many of those municipalities echoed and amplified those concerns to state leaders. So when the governor's new energy affordability legislation came up at the Local Government Advisory Commission on Tuesday, local officials said they felt like they had been heard. 'It's really nice to see this on a front burner,' Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove said. She said her city and others this winter 'asked for [the state's] help and attention, and we are so grateful to see this energy affordability agenda and the legislation filed last month to help tackle these challenges.' In a push to save ratepayers $10 billion over a decade, Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation (H 4144) last month to eliminate or reduce energy bill charges, make nuts-and-bolts changes to electricity procurement and supply practices, impose reforms to the competitive electric supply industry, and allow Massachusetts to explore new nuclear energy technologies. The governor's focus on energy costs comes after a winter that saw energy bills rise sharply, exacerbating chronic cost-of-living pressures for Massachusetts residents and businesses that already pay some of the highest energy prices in the country. 'Municipalities deal with cost challenges just like our residents and businesses do,' Gove said. 'And we know we are at a moment where energy costs in particular are causing stress and concern for customers and ratepayers across the commonwealth.' Healey's office broadly detailed where it expects to find the at least $10 billion in savings over a 10-year period, identifying 'Getting Costs Off Bills' (about $6.9 billion in savings), 'Creating Accountability' ($2.5 billion), and 'Supporting the Customer' ($900 million) as main buckets of savings. The bill is now before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, which has not yet announced a hearing for it. The bill would require the Department of Public Utilities to review and reform all charges on energy bills, and establish a cap on month-to-month bill increases. It would allow Massachusetts to procure energy directly, which would eliminate fees the state pays utilities for entering into those contracts, and also seeks to reduce the value of net metering credits for new and large solar hookups or other facilities that transfer energy back to the grid in exchange for a bill credit. The governor's legislation seeks to phase out the Alternative Portfolio Standard program, which incentivizes technologies like natural-gas-fired combined heat and power facilities, fuel cells, biofuels, and heat pumps, by 2028. It also would grant utilities the ability to finance the Mass Save efficiency program, Electric Sector Modernization Plans, storm response, and other programs by issuing rate reduction bonds to securitize costs. After Executive Director of Energy Transformation Melissa Lavinson and Undersecretary of Energy Mike Judge walked through the bill, Acton Town Manager John Mangiaratti said he thinks process of linking new energy projects to the grid is an area in need of greater attention to help residents, businesses and municipalities. 'Here in Acton, we have a pretty cool energy coaching program where we have volunteers work with residents and businesses and help them navigate different ways to make clean energy choices in their buildings. We also have had a lot of success with clean energy projects, solar, for example. But the timelines that we're experiencing continues to be an obstacle that we'd like to try to find a way to overcome,' he said. 'When a project that we have planned out takes sometimes a year longer than we thought because of the interconnection delays, it really changes the finances and causes some savings that people, that the city or the town was counting on to not be there, and it disincentivizes communities from wanting to do these types of projects.' During her rundown of bill details, Lavinson talked about a part of the governor's legislation that would require utilities to provide 'flexible interconnection solutions,' which she said 'should help reduce customer costs and timelines to interconnect, and won't cost any other customers to do that.' Gove said she and other mayors support the state's desire to transition towards cleaner energy and emphasized Tuesday that cities and towns 'are simultaneously working towards our own individual climate and clean energy goals.' She mentioned her city's efforts to support electric vehicles, in keeping with its history as home to S.R. Bailey & Company, which built some of the first electric vehicles there from 1905 to 1916. 'We're grateful for your continued work to review existing policies and charges to lower lower costs for residents on the whole,' she said. 'Cities and towns are doing this work of addressing affordability every day, and know that the residents across the common a Commonwealth will appreciate the results of this larger statewide effort.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
23-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Massachusetts utility bills are climbing. Here are four possible fixes.
The largest parts of Healey's plan focused on stretching out financing of charges on bills and auditing utilities to ensure costs for items such as lobbying are not included on bills. Advertisement There are several other options to address the rising costs — including how we pay for the Mass Save efficiency program, low-income energy subsidies, and infrastructure upgrades. And, of course, there's the eternal question of how much utilities should be able to profit from their services. While Healey's bill touches on some of these areas, industry observers say there's much more that could be done. Related : Advertisement 'There's no easy button to push,' said John Odell, Worcester's chief of sustainability who has worked in and around the utility business for decades. 'You need to streamline where you can, but also look at multiple avenues to manage costs and lower folks' bills. It's not going to be just do this one thing and you solve the problem. It'll be a whole bunch of things.' No matter how the state chooses to regulate utilities, Massachusetts faces several nearly intractable challenges that push up energy prices. Consumers here use less electricity per capita than other states where many more homes use electricity for winter heating. That means the fixed cost of building and maintaining the electrical grid is spread over less total usage, driving up the per kilowatt charge needed to cover those costs. And the state has limited access to electric transmission lines and gas pipelines, which drives up prices when supplies get tight. Mass Save Mass Save, established by the Legislature in 2008 to reduce energy usage and climate-related emissions by making buildings more energy efficient, has been one factor pushing up prices. The program pays for free home energy assessments and subsidized home improvements such as added insulation, as well as conversions from gas or oil boilers to heat pumps. The program is mainly paid for by charges on utility bills, amounting to almost 10 percent of a typical electric bill and 15 to 20 percent on gas bills. Related : Spending has ballooned from $356 million in 2010, when the program started, to almost $1.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2024. In February, Massachusetts utility regulators Advertisement Mass Save proponents note that consumers who make their homes more efficient save money, by using less gas or electricity. And all of the savings together help lower demand for gas and electricity, reducing overall prices for everyone. 'The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one that you don't consume,' said Doug Horton, Eversource's vice president of distribution rates and regulatory requirements. Under the governor's plan, utilities could issue bonds to stretch out each year's bill for Mass Save and a few other programs over 20 years, instead of paying all in one year. Customers would see a much smaller charge on monthly bills, although the added interest cost from the bonds means they'd be paying more over the long run. Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the nonprofit Boston Climate Action Network, would prefer a simpler solution: use general tax revenue instead of charges on utility bills. 'We don't need to overthink this,' Farooqi said. 'We know that tax revenue is a key way to finance anything that's important in the state.' Low-income subsidies There's little debate that Massachusetts should help lower-income households struggling with high energy bills, but the cost rises as other costs on the bill increase. Gas customers mainly get help from the federal Home Energy Assistance Program, funded from the federal budget (though President Trump has Low-income electric customers qualify for a discounted rate, which is covered by a charge on the bills of higher-income customers. The program doesn't get its own line item on the bill but is included in the general charge for distributing power. In March, the governor Advertisement If utilities did not provide a lower rate for low-income households, those customers might run up bills at higher rates they would be unable to pay. All of the remaining customers would have to cover those losses, Eversource's Horton said. 'We're trying to meet customers where they are, providing a critical service, so they're able to afford the bills we're sending,' he said. Infrastructure Another factor contributing to higher bills is a charge to pay for modernizing the electric grid to handle higher loads as more people switch to electric heat pumps and electric vehicles. On the gas side, legislators created a program in 2014 called the Gas System Enhancement Plan allowing utilities to charge customers to pay for fixing aging, leaky pipes. With inflation pushing up construction costs and more leaks occurring, the charges have grown to represent more than 10 percent of gas bills. So last month, regulators moved to reduce the charges by lowering annual spending limits and removing some interest payments, as well as giving the utilities incentives to deal with leaks without construction (such as by taking sections of pipe out of service). The changes could lower the charges on bills by almost one-fifth, state officials said. 'If policymakers really want to improve affordability, there's got to be much more focus on driving down... capital spending on the distribution system,' said Dorie Seavey, senior research scientist at Groundwork Data, who has analyzed systems in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Profits A final factor in bills that lawmakers could influence, though one the governor did not take on directly, is the profit margin built in for utilities. Known as the return on equity, the calculation is hotly debated when the companies seek approval for their rates every few years. Advertisement For example, in National Grid's most recent electric rate case, decided last year, the state DPU approved a profit rate of 9.35 percent, less than the 10.5 percent National Grid wanted but higher than the 9 percent rate the attorney general and some consumer advocates argued was more appropriate. The profit margin adds to the cost of any infrastructure projects that regulators approve, noted Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at Acadia Center, a nonprofit focused on clean energy policy. 'Return on equity is certainly something to look at,' said Murray, who has made filings asking regulators to lower the profit rate. 'They're making profits off of every additional pipeline. Every pipe that gets put in the ground, that is profit for them." But Connecticut may stand as a warning against reducing the rate of return too much. After legislators changed the rate calculation formula, regulators there lowered several components of utility returns, which in part caused Standard & Poor's to The utilities must be able to raise capital by borrowing money or selling stock in order to expand and update their networks, Eversource's Horton said. 'We have to be able to pay back our debt lenders and equity investors,' he said. 'There's a lot of focus, as there should be, on the amount of equity return that is built into rates, and that is a key focus of regulation.' Advertisement Aaron Pressman can be reached at
CNET
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
A Free Energy Audit Helped Me Get Insulation in My Home
The way the heat moved through my home gave me the inkling that my home had no insulation. It's a 100-year-old home in Boston where I was splitting the first-floor apartment with a roommate I met on Facebook. After receiving a $500 gas bill for one month of heat, we were outraged. We called up a home energy contractor who was licensed to perform free home energy audits on behalf of MassSave, the state's energy efficiency program. What is a home energy audit? A home energy audit is a way for professionals to inspect your home and identify spots where you could increase energy efficiency and, ultimately, lower energy costs. An audit like this is usually a first step to getting financial incentives from a state- or utility-run energy efficiency program. Often, a home energy audit is performed by an HVAC contractor. They'll come into your home, inspect your walls, windows and heating systems, as well as insulation in the walls, basement or attic. Their goal is to identify places where your home is losing heat or energy, and suggest improvements such as better insulation or new appliances. They might also recommend smaller fixes, like weather-stripping your doors and installing a low-flow showerhead. At the end of an audit, the inspector will leave you with a report and tell you how you can move forward with any of the improvements you're interested in. What I learned during my home energy audit The energy inspector showed up to my apartment two weeks later and gamely started with an inspection of the basement -- where he found not a bit of insulation -- before drilling a small hole in the exterior wall of our kitchen and inserting a camera. I watched with smug satisfaction as the video feed on his phone showed a cavern between the plaster lath and clapboard siding. I was right: no insulation there, either! I saw particles of dust speed by on an airstream of suction, pulling hot air from our ancient steam radiators right through the walls and out of the apartment. The energy expert in my kitchen talked excitedly about how much of a difference we could make by stuffing those empty walls full of cellulose insulation, a feat accomplished by drilling holes underneath the siding and blowing it in from outside. But I was skeptical. That sounds expensive, I thought. There's no way my landlord -- who doesn't live here or pay the utility bills -- would go for that. I humored the contractor and invited him to sit at my kitchen table while he hammered out a proposal on his laptop. When he was finished, he spun the screen toward me and delivered the verdict: We could have our walls blasted full with insulation, and our basement airsealed against the elements, for free. As in, 100% covered by state incentives, at no cost to us or our landlord. My jaw nearly hit the floor. I write about state and federal energy policy for CNET pretty extensively, and I like to think I have a good sense of how this works: Usually, incentives can shave off a chunk of the cost, but not all of it -- and you probably need to have a lower income to qualify. Right? Wrong. At least in Massachusetts. The state offers 75% to 100% off approved insulation and air sealing projects, and the contractor told me that because our household was entirely occupied by renters, the state would cover 100% of these improvements. There was a small caveat: A third project he recommended -- insulating the ceiling of the basement (underneath our apartment floors) to keep more heat in our unit -- was not covered by the program and would cost my landlord $4,000. But I could hardly be disappointed. Even if our landlord only authorized the other two projects (which, again, would be free!), we could see a dramatic reduction in our heating bill. Making your home well insulated is one of the most effective ways to reduce your energy bills. Mike De Socio/CNET What happened after my energy audit My contractor friend was not content to leave me with a PDF that I could forward to my landlord. He insisted on calling my landlord on the spot to pitch him on the projects. I stood in the doorframe of my kitchen and watched in awe as he walked my landlord through the proposal, answering questions and doing his best to close the deal. By the time the energy audit was over, I was giddy. I never thought insulation would excite me so, yet I was doing a happy dance (literally!) at the prospect of it. I felt like I was living in a clean-energy utopia where state policies just work the way they're supposed to. When I was done dancing, I followed up with my landlord via email. He seemed interested in moving forward but said he wanted to ask the contractor a few more questions and would look into scheduling the work. By early the next week, more good news arrived in my inbox. My landlord had signed the paperwork to proceed with the two free projects: Insulating our walls and air-sealing the perimeter of our basement. He passed on the $4,000 add-on to insulate underneath our floorboards, but I still felt like it was a huge win. Only days later, the contractors pulled up with a box truck full of toasty insulation they were set to stuff into our home. They started in the basement, first using spray-foam to seal the cracks where wood floor joists met the basement's perimeter walls. A second worker followed, slicing puffy chunks of pink insulation that he stuffed into the space between the stone foundation and the basement's rim-joists. When they finished, our basement had been air-sealed, protecting it from the elements. But they couldn't go upstairs and start doing the same thing for our apartment walls because, ironically enough, it was too cold to install insulation. An ambient temperature of 15 degrees Fahrenheit, plus a hard layer of ice around the house, made for unsafe working conditions. But the delay was only temporary. As soon as the ice melted and the mercury crept back above freezing, the contractors returned to fill our walls with a warm blanket of cellulose. How you can get a free home energy audit too Not every state offers free home energy audits, but many do. Check with your state's energy department to see what's available. Usually, in states that offer this, you'll contact a qualified home energy contractor, who will come to your home and perform an inspection. The state reimburses them, so it won't cost you a thing. Then, based on what they find, the contractor might propose more insulation or a new heating system and can tell you what state incentives you qualify for. If you decide to proceed with a project, you can usually use the same contractor to do the work too.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. Gov. Healey pitches energy plan to save $10B over 10 years
The winter heating season might be over, but Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey threw another log on the Legislature's fire with a sweeping and long-awaited energy efficiency bill. The plan, unveiled Tuesday in Leominster, would, among other things, eliminate or significantly reduce charges on energy bills. It also would open the door to new nuclear energy technologies and make nuts-and-bolts changes to electricity procurement and supply practices in an attempt to save ratepayers $10 billion over a decade. The legislation further would allow the state to directly procure its energy. That would eliminate the fees the state pays utilities for entering into those contracts. And it would 'explore cutting-edge nuclear technologies,' the governor's office said. It also seeks to reduce the value of net metering credits for new and large solar hookups or other facilities that transfer energy back to the grid in exchange for a bill credit. 'Massachusetts families and businesses can't afford big energy price spikes now, or in the future. This bill – along with our energy affordability agenda – gets costs off bills, saves people money, and adopts an all-of-the-above strategy to bring new energy into Massachusetts,' Healey said. The governor's bill would also require the Department of Public Utilities to review and reform all charges on energy bills, and establish a cap on month-to-month bill increases. The proposal comes months after Bay Staters saw their energy bills skyrocket, prompting the Arlington Democrat to authorize a $50 credit on April electricity bills, and a suite of executive actions designed to rein in costs. Healey's office identified three areas for savings over the next 10 years: 'Getting Costs Off Bills and Avoid Unnecessary Costs' (about $6.9 billion in savings), 'Creating Accountability' ($2.5 billion), and 'Supporting the Customer' ($900 million). Shifting to utilities the ability to finance the Mass Save efficiency program, Electric Sector Modernization Plans, storm response, and other programs through rate reduction bonds would lead to 'the ability to reduce ratepayer costs by up to $5 billion in the first 10 years,' Healey's office said. In dueling statements, forces on both sides of the issue weighed in. The pro-business Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance sharply criticized the proposal, arguing that it 'doubled down on the same costly alternative energy mandates.' 'That's not reform. That's a confession,' Paul Diego Craney, the organization's executive director, said in a statement. of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. 'This plan is political window dressing. Governor Healey is trying to calm public outrage over sky-high electric bills without making any of the tough decisions needed to actually lower them,' Craney continued, adding that the bill 'gives more power to the same bureaucrats [who] created this mess and asks ratepayers to trust them again. That's not vying for affordability — that's arrogance." Caitlin Peale Sloan, the vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation for Massachusetts, credited Healey for her actions, but said she still needed to take 'bolder steps' to rein in costs. Healey's plan 'introduces some no-nonsense reforms and promising ideas, particularly around removing outdated programs and creating new ways to make clean energy projects more accessible,' Peale Sloan said. 'However, to truly make energy affordable, the governor must take bolder steps to rein in excessive utility spending on costly infrastructure projects and corporate profits. Holding utilities accountable is essential—not just for climate progress, but for the financial well-being of Massachusetts families,' Peale Sloan said. South Coast lawmaker makes multi-limbed argument against octopus farming Is Worcester breaking Open Meeting Law by going virtual? What the AG's office says 'Internal discussions' involved putting Biden in wheelchair if reelected, new book claims Donald Trump takes credit for a 'new word' — a word first used in the 16th century Trump administration cuts another $450 million from Harvard Read the original article on MassLive.
