A Look Inside the #1 State for Energy Efficiency By the Numbers

June 30, 2014
Massachusetts has been named the #1 state for energy efficiency three years running by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Environment Northeast explains how the state’s energy efficiency program works and shows the benefits it produces.

Massachusetts has been named the #1 State for Energy Efficiency three years running by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Environment Northeast explains how the state’s energy efficiency program works and shows the benefits it produces.

The Green Communities Act  requires the state’s electric and natural gas distribution utilities as the energy efficiency program administrators  to procure “all available energy efficiency and demand reduction resources that are cost effective or less expensive than supply.”

This all-cost-effective energy efficiency mandate helps drive energy efficiency investments in the state, requiring the utilities to treat energy efficiency as a “first fuel” and invest in all cost-effective efficiency resources that are cheaper than additional electric or natural gas supply. The act also provides for funding of all-cost-effective energy efficiency, subject to the approval of the Department of Public Utilities. Within this framework, the program administrators develop and implement statewide three-year energy efficiency plans.

The Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC), a stakeholder board established by the Green Communities Act, works collaboratively with the program administrators to guide the development and monitor the implementation of the statewide three-year energy efficiency plans. The EEAC brings together a diverse group of energy efficiency stakeholders, including representatives of various state agencies as well consumer, business, and environmental interests. The first three-year plan period covered 2010-2012, and the state is currently mid-way through the second three-year plan (2013-2015).

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

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