Peak Alerts! Protect our climate by reducing your electricity use on weekdays from 5-8pm

Starting Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

According to Accuweather, we're headed for a prolonged stretch of hot weather through July 31st. Over the next few days, you might hear from your local utility or our electric grid operator, ISO-New England, that our electricity system will be stressed. If you care about air quality and the cost of electricity, the next two weeks are a time to pay attention to when you're using energy. In this blog, we’ll explain how weather affects the power grid, and how we can collectively try to cope.

Green Energy Consumers has launched a new Heat Pump program designed to connect consumers with trusted expertise. As prices for heating oil and natural gas continue to respond to the worldwide supply shortage, this is a great summer to investigate whether a heat pump would make sense for your home.

If you've wondered how to assess your home's suitability for heat pumps, find installers, or compare their varying bids, we recommend you register for this new program by clicking below. And, of course, read on!

Find the best contractor for you

Because the heat pump market in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is still relatively young, it’s sometimes hard to know if an installer has enough experience to do a good job. Likewise, heat pump systems can be designed in various ways, and many consumers lack the training to be able to compare designs. Our program makes it easier for energy consumers to find trusted vendors and independent advice. 

"I want to make sure that my electricity is coming from coal," said no one ever.

Renewable energy is different in that people do want to make sure it's on the grid, in ever increasing numbers. That's why so many people think about buying green electricity, and why they get duped by competitive electricity suppliers.

Our Executive Director Larry Chretien is quoted in a recent article by the Daily Beast that tackles the topic of competitive electricity suppliers, their shady practices, and their greenwashed products. Here we've reposted his comments from the article, and we recommend you read the whole thing.

Our non-profit organization is committed to educating people about climate-friendly behaviors and technologies. We're also advocates for excellent climate policies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Here are our most useful and popular blogs and webinars of 2021.

If you love the work we do, please consider making a contribution today to keep it going in 2022!

Don't miss Green Energy Consumers staff have been posting videos all week leading up to Giving Tuesday (November 30th)! Videos on important climate news and solutions will be posted on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and on greenenergyconsumers.org/donate all week.

If you’re motivated to learn more about what you can do about the climate crisis as a consumer and a citizen, and what lots of smart, committed activists are doing – then join us at our Fall Meeting, November 19th. This year, we're thrilled to welcome Kelsey Wirth, co-founder of Mothers Out Front, as our featured speaker.

We take great pride in the fact that we, along with a company called Good Energy, took the model of municipal aggregation (a.k.a. community choice energy) and made it truly green. We did so with our pioneer partners, the City of Melrose and the town of Dedham. In 2016, those communities used the buying power of their residents to secure an affordable electricity rate that includes more local renewable energy than required by state law. Since then, over a dozen communities have joined the movement and added more renewable energy to residents' electricity supply - most recently Medford, Bedford, and Rockland. Green Energy Consumers is proud to be providing that additional incremental amount of renewable energy.

Thanks to everyone who attended our Electric Vehicles 101 webinar on August 21! In case you missed it, here a short recap of what we talked about and the answers to some popular questions.

Here in Boston and Providence, temperatures finally cracked 70 degrees. It’s true: summer is coming!

But with high summer temperatures comes high electricity demand. The bad news is that, between 5pm and 8pm on peak electricity demand days, the electrical grid operator turns on dirty, expensive power plants that sit unused the rest of the year. The good news is that you can help fight dirty energy on peak days by reducing your electricity usage during peak hours. Sign up for Shave the Peak alerts at greenenergyconsumers.org/shavethepeak so that you’ll know when to turn off your air conditioner, lights, and appliances.

For a couple decades now, we've offered consumers an easy way to have their electricity usage met by renewable energy. That's simple — just plug some wind and solar into the grid. But how about air travel? Although progress is being made on electric planes (you read that right), it will be a while before you get on a jet powered by batteries. But we need to mitigate the impacts of flying because those impacts are real, huge, and growing.