The Energy Consumer's Bulletin- a New England energy news blog

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Avoid carbon dioxide emissions: Doing the math on green power

If we can avoid burning fossil fuels to make electricity (or heat our homes), we can avoid carbon dioxide emissions which cause global warming.  Fortunately, we can do just that by buying green power and making our homes energy efficient.  Can we quantify the benefits of green power and efficiency?  Yes, we can!  Here’s how:

The organization that runs the New England power grid does an annual assessment of air emissions made by generators in the region.  The assessment reports on how much sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide are emitted in a given year, both on average per megawatt hour and at the margin.  By “at the margin” we mean the last megawatt hour (MWh) produced.  When we consider how avoiding emissions is a benefit, we calculate the benefit by looking at the marginal rate, which is the rate associated with the last megawatt hour we are using on the New England Power grid.  For those of who are concerned about climate change, we are interested in the marginal rate of carbon dioxide emissions because we want to replace that last megawatt hour of dirty energy with something that is zero-emission.   The point is that that we claim credit for avoiding the marginal rate rather than the average rate. 

Picture of Larry Chretien Larry Chretien

Heating System Upgrades, Step-by-step Part 2: Upgrading in Rhode Island

In a recent post we provided Massachusetts residents with a step-by-step guide to making heating system upgrades using Mass Save rebates to replace their aging heating systems with more efficient models. Rhode Island also has incentive programs available to help upgrade heating systems and make other energy efficiency improvements in Rhode Island homes. Rhode Island residents can lower their energy costs by following these steps:

Meredith Geraghty

I Want to Buy an Electric Vehicle Part 5: The Decision

Our new car is a Chevy Volt!

This past Friday, the Chretien family traded in our fabulous 2002 Toyota Prius and bought a 2015 Chevrolet Volt.  After three months of research and test drives, we decided to go with the Volt if we could find a Chevy dealer we could tolerate.  It was a difficult choice because we also liked the Prius Plug-In Hybrid and the all-electric Nissan Leaf.  We would have been happy with either of those, especially given that we loved our 2002 Prius and still love our 2008 Prius.  In fact, we even thought about holding off on buying a plug-in for a year or two because the 2002 Prius has been running great.  On recent highway drives, it was getting 55 miles per gallon (mpg). 

Picture of Larry Chretien Larry Chretien

Climate Change Impacts on Public Heath - Up Close and Personal

Before he died in 2011, Dr. Paul Epstein of the Harvard School of Public Health researched the impacts of global warming on public health.  The work he did brought complicated science down to a very basic fundamental point – how does changing our climate affect human health? He illustrated the many ways that we are being harmed. Shortly before he died, he wrote a great piece for the Atlantic

Picture of Larry Chretien Larry Chretien

NOW is the time to set up your heating oil budget plan

Is there such thing as peace of mind when it comes to heating oil bills? A budget plan may be the answer. Signing up for a budget plan through your oil dealer is a good way to spread out your oil bill into 10 to 12 monthly payments, making oil bills more like a regular utility. Your cost is fairly even and there are no surprise huge oil bills that sneak up on you. It also helps dealers plan, reduce their costs and become more efficient.

Picture of Katy Kidwell Katy Kidwell

Western Mass Electric Co. Teams Up With Mass Energy to Offer Renewable Energy to Customers!

 

We’ll celebrate at Berkshire East Ski Resort & Canopy Tours on July 27th, and you’re invited.

Coming up on July 27th is Mass Energy and People’s Power & Light’s 4th annual Berkshire East Wind Turbine Festival in Charlemont, MA (get your tickets here). Local wind turbine power at Berkshire East is a huge success story—it literally helped keep this family-run ski and zip-lining resort from shutting its doors. Mass Energy/PP&L was able to play a role in Berkshire East’s success by contracting to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) from their local wind turbine long-term.

Picture of Erin Taylor Erin Taylor