Oldham: The need to clean up municipal light plants
March 18, 2019
Much of recent effort on Beacon Hill to clean our energy and cut industrial carbon pollution has focused on our big electric utilities, but we’ve overlooked a critical slice of our energy pie. Right now, 14 percent of the electricity used in Massachusetts is provided by municipal light plants, owned, maintained and operated by communities to provide electric and/or gas services to their citizens. The Massachusetts Climate Action Network has taken a first-of-its-kind look at MLPs on transitioning to clean energy, and what we’ve found is a golden opportunity to make fast affordable gains on providing clean, efficient energy to Massachusetts consumers.
We graded all 41 MLPs on their clean energy supply portfolios, energy efficiency programs, transparency to their customers, and the extent to which they plan to reduce their dependence on dirty energy over time. We found that while several stood out for their good work, many of them need a great deal of improvement to keep pace with the commonwealth’s clean energy policies and goals
Energy efficiency and clean energy save customers money, cut pollution, shave peak power costs, and create local jobs. But we found customers in many MLP territories have been excluded from the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy:
Not one MLP had enough renewable energy to meet the Renewable Portfolio Standard in 2017 and the majority of the low-polluting energy claimed by MLPs is attributed to old nuclear generation, which doesn’t meet the green energy standard of either the state RPS or the Massachusetts Clean Energy Standard.
At least 16 MLPs obscure or misrepresent information about how much clean energy they are actually providing, giving different information to their customers than they give when reporting carbon pollution to the state.
No MLP is yet running an effective energy efficiency program. With the exception of four towns, fewer than 2 percent of each MLP’s customers actually use the energy efficiency rebates offered, and it appears that many MLPs are not tracking the results of their rebate programs.
It’s a key time to be talking about them because the Massachusetts legislature is considering several bills that could modernize MLP rules. At the same time, it’s also considering at least one that would codify their free pass to pollute.
We can already see that immediate action is possible. Positive change has recently happened in the two MLPs represented in the MetroWest: Hudson and Wellesley. Wellesley’s light board recently voted to retire all of their Renewable Energy Certificates. This will substantially increase the percentage of renewable and non-emitting energy provided to customers. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center selected Hudson Light and Power to participate in the HeatSmart program. Through this program HL&P should be able to drastically increase the number of installations of high-efficiency electric heating (heat pumps). Both of these initiatives are merit for congratulations and will result in higher scores in our next report card if the MLPs implement tracking and data collection.
I hope our elected officials at the state and local levels take advantage of this opportunity to grow our local clean energy economy, secure our energy supply, and meet our climate pollution reduction goals.
The following towns are served by an MLP: Ashburnham, Belmont, Berkley, Boxborough, Boylston, Braintree, Chester, Chicopee, Concord, Danvers, Dighton, Georgetown, Gosnold, Groton, Groveland, Hingham, Holden, Holyoke, Hudson, Hull, Ipswich, Lakeville, Littleton, Lynnfied, Mansfield,Marblehead, Merrimac, Middleborough, Middleton, North Attleborough, North Reading, Norwood, Paxton, Peabody, Princeton, Raynham, Reading, Rowley, Russell (northern part of town), Shrewsbury, South Hadley, Sterling, Stow, Taunton, Templeton, Wakefield, Wellesley, West Boylston, Westfield, Wilmington
Carol Oldham is executive director of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network.