Belmont Light’s Role in Energy Efficiency

By Roger Colton

Belmont’s commitment to a long-term goal of strategic electrification will not scale back Belmont Light’s energy-efficiency programs. In Belmont, strategic electrification involves increasing electricity use primarily by electrifying transportation and home heating/cooling. Belmont Light says there’s no conflict between this effort to increase electricity use and its offer of energy-efficiency programs.

According to Ben Thivierge, energy specialist for Belmont Light, the phrase “energy efficiency” has “changed its meaning. Energy efficiency used to mean simply not using electricity.” Today, he said, “there’s a larger scope. ‘Energy efficiency’ today is associated with decarbonization. It is through energy efficiency that municipal light departments figure out how strategic electrification and decarbonization work together.”

One way Belmont Light seeks to reduce the carbon emissions from residential customers is by encouraging less electricity use at peak hours. Customers who use electricity on the days, or even the hours, of highest use are using dirty electricity. Power plants designed primarily to serve peak demand are often the oldest, least efficient, and therefore dirtiest power plants in operation. While such plants are being replaced with cleaner natural gas power plants, Thivierge explained, the way to eliminate such dirty plants completely is to help customers cut their power use during peak demand. Peak electricity is also the most expensive, so reduced usage will help Belmont Light control costs and keep rates lower. Hot summer afternoons and early evenings (when people return home from work) are generally the times of greatest consumption.

This summer, Belmont Light is rolling out a load control program to alert consumers to peak consumption hours and let them cut their usage at that time through a smart-phone app. They can link appliances such as air conditioners to a wireless network in the home, which will “in effect, turn all the air conditioners into a single wifi-enabled device,” said Thivierge. They need not be at home, he added, nor will they need to adjust each appliance individually. Electric water heaters can be controlled as well.

Belmont Light operates with a specific energy-efficiency budget each year. Thivierge characterized the budget as “healthy for a system our size,” though he noted that Belmont Light is seeking to expand its programming (and thus its budget). The budget is generated by a charge on each customer’s monthly bill. According to Thivierge, the charge is imposed on each unit of electricity consumed. For a typical Belmont Light residential customer, who uses an average of 550-kilowatt hours a month, the charge is about $1.25 per customer per month. Belmont Light spends its energy-efficiency budget every year.

Belmont Light will continue to provide efficiency rebates for consumers who exchange their old refrigerators for Energy-Star-certified refrigerators. In contrast, electric light bulbs are becoming less important. Given that most consumers have now changed primarily to the use of efficient CFL and LED light bulbs, when someone leaves a light bulb on, “they are sipping electricity, not guzzling electricity,” said Thivierge, emphasizing that he is not encouraging consumers to leave lights on, simply noting the differences that exist today in contrast to even just a few years ago.

In short, Thivierge said, from Belmont Light’s perspective, “just because we’re greening our energy doesn’t mean that we can start using electricity irresponsibly.” Indeed, he says, the cleanest, least-expensive electricity available is still the electricity that isn’t used. As Belmont moves to electrify uses such as transportation and home heating/cooling, Belmont Light will continue its efforts to help consumers not only reduce their electricity use, but also “use electricity wisely,” to reduce both costs and carbon emissions.

Roger Colton is co-chair of the Belmont Energy Committee. He write the biweekly “Community Conversations” column for the Belmont Citizen Herald, produces a biweekly podcast of the same name for the Belmont Media Center, and is co-host of the BMC news program Belmont Journal.