Energy companies ask for more money halfway through energy efficiency programs

BOSTON (WWLP) – The Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council met on Wednesday, announcing their mid-term modifications of the state’s three-year energy efficiency programs.

This council, created by the Green Communities Act of 2008, oversees the long-term vision for Massachusetts’s energy future and works to create energy efficiency savings that can benefit both the environment and the economy.

They also develop and implement plans to make investor-owned gas and electric utilities and energy providers as productive and sustainable as possible. The mid-term modifications (MTMs) come from energy companies, who are requesting more funding to carry their projects through 2024–the end of this term.

Some council members expressed concern in the meeting that the need for more funding comes from a place of poor planning. “I wonder why we were not proactive, and that we have to get to the situation that we have gotten into. Are we about to repeat the same thing next year? Why don’t we just do good in the way we plan?” said Mary Wambui, Asset Manager of the Planning Office for Urban Development.

Representatives of the companies requesting more money say that they planned as well as they could with the information available to them, but MTMs still may be necessary in the future as consumer demand increases.

The overarching goal of this council–and of the programs the energy companies participate in–is to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

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