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Energy-efficiency offerings could help Granite Staters save on energy in new three-year plan
Imagine you could go to the store and purchase a coupon for one dollar, and that coupon provides the recipient with two dollars and twenty-seven cents. It’s likely the stores offering these coupons wouldn’t be able to keep them in stock. Savvy shoppers would scoop up those coupons by the armload, and the staff at the store may have to limit customers from taking too many.
This imaginary scenario is absurd, but in broad strokes it also describes the state’s energy-efficiency policies, which operate under the brand name “NHSaves.” The next iteration of the state’s three-year energy efficiency plan is set to be approved by state regulators by the end of November, and the programs as a whole are forecast to generate $2.27 in benefits for Granite Staters for every dollar invested.
Considering the cost-effectiveness of these programs, perhaps it’s no surprise that New Hampshire’s lawmakers have now twice voted unanimously that they want to make these coupons available to the state’s savvy shoppers.
In 2022 and 2023, the Legislature has voted unanimously to pass two bills which have sent a clear message to the state’s regulators that New Hampshire wants to keep the shelves stocked with money-saving, energy-efficiency offerings.
And the offerings are exciting.
Over the course of 2024-2026, the three-year plan will offer financial assistance to encourage nearly 5,000 new homes to be built above code, including many being built as close to net-zero-ready standards as possible, and will assist more than 11,000 homeowners add insulation to their existing homes, of which nearly a third will be low-income households. These programs will also help cut the costs of nearly 40,000 businesses and municipal energy consumers.
The plan includes important innovations, too. If the plan is approved, New Hampshire residents and businesses will be paid to use various technologies, including back-up batteries that they’ve purchased to weather New Hampshire’s frequent storm-induced outages on sunny days. Batteries that are enrolled in the program will be discharged into the grid during times when more energy is needed, avoiding having to buy electricity when it’s most expensive.
Over the course of three years, more than 13,500 residents and 419 businesses are expected to enroll in these “Active Demand Response” programs. And some of these incentives are particularly cost effective. Each dollar invested in incentives encouraging businesses to participate creates up to $4 of benefit.
If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that New England’s energy prices are increasingly exposed to global energy markets. Our electricity prices are driven almost entirely by natural gas prices, we’re located at the very end of the existing gas infrastructure, and American natural gas is increasingly exported overseas to Europe.
As a result, New England has found itself in the unenviable position of having our economy yoked to the swings of geopolitics, and the whims of strong-man dictators in petrostates all over the world. The most meaningful immediate-term action any of us can do to reduce our exposure to these forces is to simply use less fossil fuels. Energy efficiency is our first, best option in that regard.
This need is particularly pressing when you look at how much new electricity demand is expected in the years to come. Currently, there are around 4,000 electric vehicles registered in New Hampshire, but that number is set to increase to more than 165,000 10 years from now.
Over that same time frame, the increasing electrification of heating load is expected to add as much as 271 megawatts of winter heating demand to the electric grid, equivalent to the capacity of a brand-new, medium-sized power plant. If we’re going to meet this growing demand as affordably as we can, we’ll need to invest as many of those money-saving efficiency coupons as we can get our hands on.
There is one last hurdle before this three-year plan can be operating: It needs to be approved by state regulators. The three-member Public Utilities Commission must issue an order on whether to adopt the efficiency plan by November 30. The last time they had an opportunity to issue such an order, they attempted to dismantle the state’s efficiency programs. That decision has now been corrected by the state’s Legislature, but I don’t think we can safely assume that this new plan is on a smooth path to approval.
Feel free to let the commissioners know that Granite Stater’s like saving money on our energy bills. Write an email to ClerksOffice@puc.nh.gov with “Public Comment on Docket DE 23-068” in the subject line and urge the PUC not to mess this one up.
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