November 5, 2025 – Energy and Climate Committee – Video & Transcript

November 5, 2025 - Energy and Climate Committee

Autoscroll:

This is the meeting of the Energy and Climate Committee, November 5th. I'm Neil Gordon. I am sitting in for Ellen Cohen as chair of the meeting. I'll call the meeting to order at, you know, 4 or 52. In attendance, we have Bill Huss and Tom Sciacca and Neil Gordon as members, Olivia Blaney, and now Julie, sorry, staff, and Molly Cohen as a peer from Air Force.
Normally, I would say that this meeting is being conducted with remote participation. No public would be allowed to be here that can attend remotely. However, this meeting has had a technical difficulty, so we shall see. In any case, this meeting will be recorded, and it will be made available to the public on WACAM as soon as possible after the meeting is practical. We would now call out the public comment, but there are no members of the public here or online, as best we can tell. So, Julie has to look at the left. Okay, will your slides be available? I can tell them to you. I'll share the slides with Olivia after this, and then she can disseminate them to you guys. Disappeared. That's okay. If Molly's ready, we'll begin. We'll go with Bob. Okay, so Molly Cowell is here. Eversource to tell us whatever she's going to tell us about Eversource. Great. Okay, I do have two other folks joining us, but by the time we get to their section, we'll be sure. I mean, you've waited. If you want to wait, we can do something else. It's your call. Do you want to wait for them to join you? Do you want to wait for them to do it? If you have something else to cover real quick? Otherwise, I can get started, and they'll hop on. That's fine. I was away, obviously. Did Julie have more to say about herself? She had a brief introduction, or are we good to keep moving, or do you have more to say? Just to close out the climate leaders thing, is there anyone that has some time to talk to me in between meetings? If you want to get it passed by December 31st. So if that heavily involves the electrification, the one of us who was most expert is the chair of the tunnel, so I'll probably ask her first. Okay. Yeah, Ellen will be back November 20. November 27. 22nd, you're right. She's in New Zealand. I've met, I've known Ellen, by the way. I've worked with her since I started Weston. Is there another select board meeting scheduled? I mean, it's every two weeks. So they do not have time on the next agenda, but I would say the best approach would probably be to present in early December, both the decarbonization plan, or decarbonization roadmap, and the ZEV policy. And with that, making sure that it meets all the criteria of the committee here, and that it has some level of support. Feedback that I've heard from the select board is, you know, like they know Ellen really well. They don't know the rest of the committee as well. So, you know, I get involved. I'm on the side. So, yeah, I mean, it might be helpful to have new faces there, too, or familiar faces there that are able to, like, speak to support of it. I think sometimes when it's just staff that present, it gives the impression that this is just like an optional thing. And one of the things that I did this week was to say, you know, the value of climate leaders, how it fits into the grand scheme of, you know, why we're doing this in the first place. It's a million, it's a $1.15 million grant that we can get for facilities upgrades. And we can do a lot with that money. The angle money, and that gets the selectman's attention. Yeah. And that did, that did, that did get some, that did peak interest. And I think they weren't really aware how, why the ZEV policy was, or how that fit into the whole point of, of bridging climate leaders. But by the way, they're looking at a $600,000 shortfall. And that's why it's 27 at this point. So a million dollars. Yeah. Would, would great, would be great. And it would allow us to continue our electrification plans and continue to facilitate very much needed facilities upgrades. So, you know, I think part of it is making sure they understand that message and understand the point, because the feedback that I was getting was, well, this word seems a little bit different than this word, because they're all lawyers. So, and I do get that. I do, I appreciate that. And I get it. You're saying that there was, to the best, do you understand, there wasn't any substantive disagreement with the proposed policy? It's hard to say. One of, one feedback point was that they would not, one person was not going to improve it until it had dollars attached to it. And the, the proposed policy is, we implement, in order to implement this, we develop a cost estimation. We would pursue as soon as the policy was.
Right. And, and it, it was designed to fall within existing budgets. So, and that's true. They're cost comparative. They're not more, at least not for the light-duty vehicles. So. And so we're volunteering now to get the person.
Well, at least to the extent that involves electrification a bit. So I'm pretty expert on EVs.
You guys, you have one. I have one. So, by the way, it's a good time to send, I, uh, I, uh, this to Olivia, actually, but I, I had a chat with, um, Mark. And I remember at the last meeting, I said, well, I love EV squad cars because they accelerate like that. And Mark says, no, I don't want my guys acting like cowboys. Well, there's also no pursuit rated police cruisers available for purchase anything. And I'm just included from the call. Whether they were or not, he wouldn't want them.
But I said, but they have the advantage also of, you know, I know you guys sit on the side of the road a lot, you know, watching things. And you don't have to run an engine, you know, if you have an EV to run the HVAC stuff. And he says, yeah, we, they have all hybrids now. And he said, yeah, and we really notice it when the engines kick in. When, when we're sitting there, run from battery, we'll run out of battery. So, and by the way, he also mentioned that Berman, his boss is very supportive of this stuff. Yeah. So, we should not push the notion of fast acceleration of EVs, but the notion of all of the energy and the comfort and the emissions reduction that you get by not having to go on an engine when you're sitting on the side of the road. Speaking of that stuff, going to your area, there is a, a pilot program right now that Embersource is running using EV batteries for backup for the grid. Um, that's something that I would have liked to get into if that's going anywhere, town could get involved in that. And by the way, that has an economic payback for the EV owner. Yeah, my, um, my colleague, Gavin, who's joining us, is actually going to be talking about that program. So, fantastic. They're on the right track. Yeah. You're thinking ahead. Really great introduction. Amazing. Um, yeah, I just wanted to also, if you, you talked about money involved, you may want to think about going to the finance committee and getting that support because I sit on the finance committee so I can help. Oh, great. But, uh, that would be it because I think the small board tends to listen to. Yeah. Okay. What are the financial implications? And, uh, you know, if the finance committee can say we endorse this, that's. A hundred percent. And we did that a lot in Weston because, I mean, they're also aware that this transition needs to occur, right? Carol Martin is a former finance chair. So that's. And she seemed receptive. It was more like a perspicuity wording conversation. So we can get out of that. Yep. Yeah. Um, and I'm fortunately I have to run, but I will send the policy to all of you. I think maybe that's the first place to start. Um, and we're going to meet about the building, um, decarbonization roadmap. Also, um, we have to meet with Mike and again, that the style of that will also make it to our existing capital plan. And like, we're not asking for any money beyond what we're already expecting to spend. And if you have any sense of where the sticky points might be, I'll read the policy and say, it looks good. And it would be helpful to say, yeah, but they brought up this, this, and this. Yeah. I, I, I did look through it with a more meticulous eye the second time. And I think I caught it, but there's also a little bit of like, they're latching onto it should just say light duty. And it cannot say light duty if we want it to pass for DOER. Um, it has to be a zero emissions vehicle first policy as in that's what you consider first. And here's all the exclusionary criteria. You know what I'm saying? Um, but they wanted to jump to. You can come to the conclusion that it doesn't. Right. You can't see that part. You can't start with it doesn't. Yeah, exactly. Um, and they were a little fixated on that piece, on that. Okay. Yeah. And there is a, and in as much as this, this policy will probably exist for many years. And there is lots of technology work on heavier vehicles. So, so yes, they are not. I, I fought, um, violently against the notion about five years ago that we want to immediately buy all electric school buses. Because they were clearly not in that point of maturity at that point that they were reasonable. But I think they're getting there. Yeah. And, um. And we have local examples now that we didn't have before. Boston Public Schools is a great example. Yeah. Um, and there's a lot I've been able to learn because Western Oils has 33 buses in its fleet. Um, and so it's a big deal for them to do the transition. So, um, but yeah, I'll get the conversation started and then we'll make a move. I would say mid-December, early to mid-December, you know, give the, uh, the Blackboard a holiday gift a lot of our time. And then, um, thank you. Welcome, Julie. Okay. Thank you. Good meeting you.
You tomorrow, Julie. Bye-bye. Are we still on pause for Molly here? Or? Yeah, sorry. I let, um, my folks know that I'm going to get started a little bit early. Somebody else is not. Actually, before you start, um, I was just going to give a quick update on my own end. And I also, um, Christopher, I don't know if you can hear me. You're on mute right now. If you want to share any, any public comments. Hi, folks. No, no public comments. Just here to listen. Thanks. Hi, my name is Olivia Blaney. I'm the sustainability coordinator for Wayland. Um, I will be very frank. We had some technical difficulties with Zoom. So I'm not sure if this meeting will, um, be classified as public. Um, we, I, I'm not sure just because of the way the Zoom was kind of cooperating, but we are going to continue our meeting as we normally would, just so you're aware. Thanks. Thank you. Great. Um, so yeah, I was just going to give you guys like a brief update. Oh, I see Gabby's joined. Okay. Um, if, is, are you waiting for one more person? Yeah, he said he was jumping on now too. Okay. Then, you know what? I'll turn it over to you. Yes. If somebody's there now. Okay. I'll turn it over to Molly. And then, um, at the very end, I can just give you guys a brief update of what I've been up to and then that sounds good. Okay. Let me. Nope. Take her. Sorry. Yes. Let me ask you guys, I am terrible at this and you can help me if when you hear something that, what to be in the minutes, say, here's something, say something, say, Tom, write that down. You don't have to be really thorough. You can just say Molly from Eversource presenting, you know, for 45 minutes about electric vehicles and heat pumps. That's enough. Like, you really don't have to go crazy. Okay. Molly, the floor is yours. Thank you. So we have Gabby and, um, Bill are my colleagues that are joined virtually. So let me just get this, uh, up and running. I don't have any trouble. Um, you see that. Perfect. Okay. Um, so again, thank you guys for having, um, us join, um, Olivia kind of approached us after a G, a GMAC meeting, um, to get some more information on energy efficiency, um, sustainability and grid modernization, um, and what Eversource is, is currently doing and what we're doing throughout the state. Um, so again, like I mentioned, I have my colleagues, Gabby and Bill joining us from energy efficiency. So Gabby will, um, be taking over part of the presentation, um, when I pass it over to her, and then they'll be able to support in any, um, specific questions on, um, energy efficiency programs, um, as well. Um, and just additionally, if there are any, any questions that come up that we can't answer in the room right now, um, we'll be happy to take those back and be able to work internally with the right folks to get answers for you. And I can disseminate that information through, um, Olivia, to you guys. Okay. Um, so we're gonna be looking at energy historically, um, enabling the green energy transition. So really focusing on the ESNP, um, and what Eversource is doing there. And then where does Wayland fall and what can Wayland take advantage of, um, in the energy efficiency space and what incentives and programs we have, um, available. So understanding our electric power grid. Um, so I'm sure a lot of, you know, um, Massachusetts utilities operate in a restructured and regulated environment. So generation supply is an unregulated market is over, or ISO doing that overseas. Um, generation, but it is unregulated. Um, then transmission and distribution, Eversource owns, operates, and maintains transmission and distribution infrastructure. Um, and those are regulated. So our transmission infrastructure is federally regulated by FERC, and our distribution, um, is regulated in state by the DPU. Um, and just to really level set, um, there are five parts of our electric service delivery models to really bring it up 10,000 feet. We have generation. Generation moves to transmission. Our, our big transmission lines that you can see right when you are in the, uh, in the parking lot here, you can see a big transmission line, um, brings to a substation or substation lowers the voltage, um, to be able to send it out through our distribution system and then right to the customer.
Right. So what we're looking at for the future. So we, we know that we're increasing our electric demand and that requires a modern grid. So yesterday's grid was really a one-way street. We're looking at generation straight to transmission, substation distribution into your home. Um, now the future grid, we're looking at two-way power flow. Consumers can also be generators. So needing to be able to, um, update our infrastructure to be able to handle that moving back and forth of energy, um, and be able to take into account electric via block optimization, battery storage, having, um, solar on, on, at homes or in towns and being able to have that energy kind of go into and out of the grid as needed. So how are we doing that? How are we enabling the clean energy transition? Um, so our electric, electric sector modernization plan is that roadmap of what we are doing to be able to get the, um, infrastructure in place, make the upgrades that are needed in order for the state to, um, be able to handle the increase in electric usage, um, through Massachusetts climate law. So I'm sure all of you know, at the Energy and Climate Committee, um, Massachusetts has a very, um, ambitious clean energy goal. One of the most ambitious clean energy goals in the country by reducing, um, carbon emissions by at least 95% by 2050. So we're really looking at making upgrades and expansions to the infrastructure to make sure that we're able to handle, um, the increase in using electricity, increase in electric vehicles, increase in, um, heat pumps and being able to modernize the grid, um, throughout the state to be able to, to handle those, those upgrades. Um, and our electric sector modernization plan, um, all utilities had, um, submitted the electric sector, their own electric sector modernization plan, um, to the state. And like I said, this is our roadmap of what needs to be done, what are we, what are we forecasting in the next 10, 15, 20 years, um, and what upgrades and expansions need to be made there.
So just to give a bit of an idea of what we're looking at and what we're forecasting, we're seeing homes move to the clean energy future. So today we're looking at fossil fuels for heating, air conditioning for cooling and gas power and transportation, but in the future, we're predicting a lot more heat pumps for heating and cooling, um, adoption of electric vehicles, having rooftop solar. So again, just really taking into account all these different, um, new technologies that are being implemented to adopt electrification and, um, where we need to take the grid to be able to handle implementing all of these, all of these different types of devices.
So this is my easy to kind of understand slide. Um, so are we ready? So more electrical capacities needed and able to be a reliable electrification and clean energy resource for all communities throughout the state. So when we're looking at this, we're really looking throughout the whole state, um, of what needs to be upgraded. So we're looking at, um, 13 new substations throughout the state and 23, um, substation upgrades across the street. So again, really focusing on reliability and resilience, um, in the infrastructure upgrades we're making. So this kind of shows a little bit about each, each area of Massachusetts, but this slide is going to really show exactly where these upgrades are being made. So this is our capital project 10 year plan of those 13 new, um, substations with 23 upgrades. So what I really like to make sure people understand when we're looking at this is the grid doesn't, doesn't pay attention to town lines. Something could be happening in the next town over that affects Wayland, right? So you might get a call from, from someone, a family member. Oh, like we've seen Eversource trucks up and down our streets all day. We're getting our power back on. And you're like, what, what's going on? I haven't seen a single truck in Wayland. Where, where's Eversource? Why isn't Eversource out here getting our, our lines back up, our system back up? So what might be happening is that a substation is servicing Wayland from the next town over. So all that to say, all these upgrades, all of these new, um, substations, it's only going to improve the grid for everyone throughout the state. Um, if there's an overloaded substation or a substation that, um, has potential to be overloaded, that's what we're looking at. So we're looking to see that, um, one, if there's a substation in one area, where can we place a substation in another area to offset that? So that's really what we're looking for here. So we're not, um, looking directly in Wayland to cite a new capital project, um, in this next 10 year plan, um, as it is currently written. Um, I like to say that cause things can always change. I'm learning very much that in a, in the, uh, utility business, things are always changing, but in our current plan, there's no significant upgrades looking to be made in Wayland, but we do have upgrades happening within the area. So we have, um, Saxonville native, we have Acton and Maynard, um, upgrade. We have North Acton. So just like to mention that, um, these upgrades, this infrastructure improvements are going to benefit everyone's with the state. Um, and this graphic, which I will, um, share the, the power with you folks, um, each number corresponds with, so if you can see like from Medway sub upgrade four, that corresponds, um, in the actual ESMP, which is a hundred page document. So if you want to dive further, you'll be able to easily kind of find those plans, um, through the ESMP. So these are projects that are happening now to 20, 26 or whatever. Yeah, that's what we're looking. 36, is that all you would need to do on substation issue to meet the 20th, to be ready for 2015 or is, is there going to be another 10 year plan? So we'll have to refile. There'll be another 10 year plan. Yeah. So there'll be another 10 year plan to get us in. So yeah, we, we refile, um, the electric sector modernization plan. I believe it's every five years. Um, I'd have to double check, so don't quote me on that. Um, and so we're constantly refiling with, um, the DPU and having those conversations and forecasting, seeing what changes have made since the last time, um, we submitted the ESMP, what might adjustments would we need to make moving forward? So this is the current 10 year plan, which, um, like I mentioned, things can change. And then when we are re resubmitting, there might be other changes as well, or additions that would come in. Got it. Um, related question. Are you having trouble sourcing to transformers right now? Um, not in conversations that I've been in. Um, I can't say that I'm in a ton of conversations with the procurement team. Um, I know anything's kind of difficult to source right now. So the short answer is, is most likely, um, there's, there's struggle, but, um, yeah, like I said, I'm not in those conversations. So I can definitely find out, um, if there's, there's, there's, well, it's curious to be more than anything else. Yeah. Um, yeah, just knowing how the world works, that is my assumption. Um, and I, I know we, um, the company looks at what is, um, where the, where the highest need is, and there's, there's like layers of prioritization there. So awesome. Okay. So where does Wayland fall? So this is, we'll kind of look into more on, um, what data we have for enrollment in energy efficiency and mass aid programs. Um, and then what other programs are, are available for folks to take advantage of. Um, so Wayland's electricity usage in 2023, we have a snapshot of where Wayland kind of lies there. And then our monthly, um, snapshot. So you can tell in July, it's a little bit, um, the electric usage goes up in April and May, it's much lower than it was in July. So makes sense through, um, just the weather and how, how we know it. So we work with a really great, um, data analyst, um, we'd have, that has helped us hold this information. So if you have any really specific questions, um, I can definitely take those back and work with our data team to, um, help clarify anything. I'm surprised that the commercial and industrial was, was as large into this as who, we don't have hardly any industry or commerce in this town. Who's using that? Oh, that's, that's an interesting question, um, on what might be completely encompassing. Um, this was what commercial industry schools, town buildings, I mean, our, our elementary schools, you know, they're so dated, they're really inefficient. So maybe that's where that's coming from. I know the high school, even though it's relatively new in terms of buildings here. It was our biggest, um, emissions. Yeah. I just, I, I looked at the numbers in the. Oh, the report. Yeah. Um, yeah, there are, those buildings are high relative to the others, but still, um, you know, we are, uh, valuation wise, 94% residential. Oh, exactly. I know. We're almost entirely, uh, uh, residential town. And we, we, we once had, uh, a large industrial plant in, in Raytheon and we had it down. Yeah. It's actually right where we're sitting. Yeah. But we don't have that anymore. Well, the valuation data may be different too. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's some apples in origin, but. And I should mention that this is from 2023. I know probably not too much has changed, but. But it's more than twice commercial. So, yeah, let me, let me just add a, a quick tidbit to, this is Gabby. Hello. Um, looks like from the Weyland, Massachusetts energy reduction plan in the past. And so it is an older one, but it used to be the largest overall energy user is Weyland high school. Yeah. So maybe that kind of just to, to, to support, um, other folks in the room's comment. I can't see everyone, but I think someone had mentioned the school and municipal buildings. So that could be a part of it. Yeah. I'm sure that's it, but that's only one, one building. We have 5,000 residential units of this town. It is what it is. I mean, I'm, I'm interested in, I don't know how, what the electric incentives number means, but if, if the, if the usage numbers are right, the incentive numbers are proportionately way off. I mean, the residential number is way higher. And since that looks like the commercial people are not taking advantage of incentives. No, that would be most likely what we're looking at. Um, they're not taking advantage of the incentives and, but from what we've kind of seen Weyland, like, especially, um, I want to get to the heat pumps in a second, but I'll just flip it forward. So, like Weyland, um, 6.5% of Weyland households are, um, have, uh, a heat pump, and that's more than twice the percentage of across Massachusetts. So it might just be that Weyland residents are really adopting electrification at a more rapid pace than, um, the commercial and industrial folks. That's not true. You have, you have more than that, by the way. I mean, I, I have one. I never got to say everything, so. Me too, not me. Yeah, this is massive data. So like you said, like you're mentioning. I don't live without massive data. There might, it might just be, um, there, there's definitely more. Exactly. Awesome. And then if you guys have any, any additional questions on, I'm, I definitely took a note of that that is interesting, um, 94%. So I'll, I'll see if I can dive in to see what we have available for data for us. Yeah. I mean, if there are individual, heavy commercial or industrial users that we don't understand, we should know about them. So maybe we can help them use Lens, you know, but if we don't know about them, we can't do anything about it. Got it. Yep. Awesome. So heat pump, uh, data through, again, like you mentioned, this is massive data. So this is the data that we have access to. Um, so throughout Massachusetts, there's 83,500 accounts at, um, 79,100 locations, um, for heat pumps installed between 2019 and 2023. And then in Whelan, there's 422 accounts, 424 accounts, including you guys, um, and 404. Probably more. Yeah. I would, I would guess more, um, this is, again, like you mentioned, massive data. Um, so folks aren't, aren't going through a massive rebate. We might not have that data. And it's two years old. So yes, we, yeah, we, um, they're compiling the, um, the most recent data as well. You might get more, more interesting information when you look at how, how many signed up for the heat pump rate. Yeah. Although, um, your outreach effort has been less than ideal on that. I mean, I, I'm a heat pump coach. Mm-hmm. Oh, okay. Uh, I, uh, I talk to people, get involved with people who have, and I help them in so many months. Um, yes, the ones who went through mass, say, apparently have been signed up, have, have now gotten acknowledgement letters. Yeah. Um, but the ones who have not, who, who weren't through, you, have you gotten any, any notification? Well, Olivia sent out the links. Okay. So you, you, you have to pursue it yourself. Right, right, right. I can't get it. So we, we know about it because we're part of the team crowd, but I, I talk to people who aren't part of, you know, specifically the, the energy world, and, um, they only know about it because I told them it's true. So, yeah. Um, well, that brings us to our next slide. Heat pump rates. Um, so you guys all know that we have that lower heat pump rate in effect. And just like you mentioned, if you went through Massive, um, it is an automatic enrollment, and then there's manual enrollment for our customers who can provide there. So just like you said there, if you didn't go through Massive, you do have to go through, um, the manual process of enrolling. Um, and I know that we, every source is doing, um, bill assistance and energy efficiency events to really try and get the word out there, um, on the new, on the new heat pump rate, um, and working to send, send flyers through the email, um, through those different types of channels to try and try and get the word out there. But it is good feedback that you're seeing that a lot of folks are, are not getting that. So definitely would be interested to take that back. And, and interestingly, part of the DPPU order was you were supposed to have extensive outreach. I mean, everybody in the state ought to know all about this at this point. And that has not happened. That's not what you're saying. Will the, um, application of the rate be retroactive for people who qualify? It's already passed November 1st. Yeah. So if somebody, somebody signs up on December 1st, will they get the rating? That's a good question. Bill, do you happen to know if the, um, heat pump rate is retroactive?
Sorry, I hit the wrong button. Uh, I don't know for a fact. I know a couple of things here. Uh, we, all of the utilities created, uh, a whole marketing plan, but all of the stuff, both the approval of the rate reduction and the approval of our marketing stuff was a little bit delayed. So a lot of people are just starting to receive bill messaging, emails, direct mail pieces, et cetera, going forward. And the other aspect that was delayed was the, um, the, the manual process of being registered. We actually were able to, originally it was January 1st of 2022, that if you participated in Mass Save, um, we, we could automatically register you. And then we were able to, the utilities, Mass Save was able to bring that all the way down to January 1st, uh, 2019. So we were able to get a lot of people automatically signed up, uh, who participated through rebates incentives or, uh, or maybe 0% financing, um, for the heat pumps. Um, I can take a look as we move forward. I mean, I can go back and look through my notes to see if that question is part of our frequently asked questions and jump back in if the answer's there. Uh, but I know the, the, the, the, the manual approval process was delayed because we will look into perhaps just maybe photographic evidence type of thing. And there were people who were worried about how old the models were and all that type of stuff. So, um, so, you know, people should be getting inundated shortly with the bill messaging on the bill, letting the, I know somebody mentioned in the room that people are, are getting that they, the notifications that they were registered. Uh, so that is all ongoing and we are trying to get all caught up from the delays from September and October. We thought we'd have this out probably by the end of August, early September, but it's just the opposite little late September when mid October of these announcements were approved and got, got on their way. Yeah. So I, I signed up manually, uh, probably the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the day that ability appears. You know, on your, on your webpage, because I've been watching that webpage. Exactly. Yeah. We were directing people, you know, it hasn't been in some of the early communications. It hasn't been finalized. Please check up our webpage. And, you know, to your point, day after day, it still said, we're working on it. We're working on it. And then we finally got approval and put the further information up there. And I was watching that and I immediately signed up and I got an immediate email, email acknowledgement. Like immediate within, within seconds that, uh, that I was signed up, but I haven't seen any other indication of it on my, my account page on your website. I, in fact, my, my rate does not appear anywhere on that. Well, the, the rate would show up for, for November, the rate would show up, uh, in your December statement. Well, I just got my bill for Wealthy and it shows up. It shows up for November. They automatically, because I was, uh, they automatically moved you over. So that's the other thing. I didn't, apparently, according to our source, I didn't have to sign up. Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. If you're automatically, if you're automatically enrolled because you participated in the mass save that, and you get a, your bill cycle is early November, which obviously yours is, uh, that rate would be on there. It's the manual ones that would show 30 days later when you get the new bill. You know, I'm not talking mass save. I'm just talking on your, your, uh, heat rate. Right. Uh, yeah. You get automatically registered if, you know, if, if you got any type of rebate for, for heat pumps or we had information that a heat pump was installed, uh, to residents from. Yeah, but you could have, uh, resistance heat, you know, you'd be on that anyway. No, no, a risk resistance heat is in, you know, space heat is, uh, uh, those don't qualify. It's basically heat pump. Right, but they automatically, at least Eversource said, if you were exactly. Yeah, they must have had somewhere down the line. Yeah, they must have had somewhere down the line. That's interesting. Some kind of confirmation that you had a heat pump installed from one way or another. Correct.
Anyway, uh, the ones who were, let me see, the word mass has rebated. Or at least one that I know of got a confirmation letter of like October 30th. So, hopefully that will actually wind up and it'll change. So, anyway. So, you should see it on your belt, if not. Well, I'm getting in touch with customers. Spend an hour on the phone, yes. Oh, to make sure, but hopefully we have confirmation that some of that change over in their early November cycle, so. Yeah, that's interesting. And there are always, of course, when something like this is adopted, there are kinks that we have to try and work out. So. Okay. Hoping for the best. Awesome. Okay. So, wavelength participation in mass state programs in 2023. So, um, this could be something as small as a power strip to installing a heat pump. So, 5,100, um, housing locations, um, at 16.6%, um, have a participation rate in, um, mass aid programs. Um, with 4,948 total households, um, averaging about $316.49 in, um, total, uh, incentives. So, so that applies even if you only had an audit and got the free power strips? Is that what some of the people have been doing? So, it could be something very solid. So, we're, we're not able to, um, go through the data for, I mean, we could, but just for purposes of participation in mass aid. Overall, um, like I can't, I can't, we can't go through the data and do like just like massive savings. Like what are the big incentive, um, implication or incentive programs that folks are being. That's, that's a shockingly low, low number. 16.6% is not mass-saved rebates. I mean, mass-saved ones, which are free. Is that in, in total or just 2023? Just 2023. So, maybe that's why it's. Oh, yeah, sorry. One year we're looking at. So, we're looking at the most recent data that we have available right now. All right. Sorry. Cumulatively. Cumulatively. It's a lot more. Don't worry, Tom. We gotta get up there and start talking about doors. Hopefully we're going to be partnering with, um, that vendor that I had mentioned, the RFQ we put out to offer free canvassing flyers, home energy audits, stuff like that, but in the works right now. So, yeah, and I can take a look and see if I can get, um, a more cumulative, um, uh, more cumulative numbers for you. Yeah. This becomes an important goal for us. Yeah. Yeah. Um, awesome. And then I'm going to kick it over to my colleague, Gabby, um, who is going to talk about connected solutions. Um, can, can people see me or am I a secret voice in the, in the ceiling? Your secret voice. All right. Well, my camera's on, so that should count for something. Um, thanks everyone for letting me join. I wanted to shout out, um, unless it's blurry and I'm making this up, I think I see a, a UConn sweatshirt. So go Huskies. If I'm, if I'm missing that, sorry, it's a little blurry. Um, but still go Huskies. Um, so I wanted to start talking about the connected solutions program. Um, this is a program that I helped implement. I'm on our demand response team, um, here at Eversource that serves the tri-state, including Connecticut, New Hampshire. Um, we also of course serve Massachusetts. Um, the general purpose of connected solutions and our demand response programs, as well as managed charging, which I will get into later is to basically, we want to reduce or shift electricity usage away from times of high energy usage hours. Um, during those times when we are at capacity or closing in on capacity in certain areas, we do have to utilize and depend on dirty or fuel sources. So these are programs that are trying to help mitigate that need, um, and depend on clean energy options. Um, and, um, hey, Molly, are you doing the slides? Would you press next if it's you? Thank you.
Thank you. Um, okay. So kind of already hit this, but what's the purpose? We want to mitigate stress on the grid during times of peak electricity demand. This is, is, is currently the hottest days of the year. We are summer peaking. Um, who is this program available to? It is generally available to Eversource rate paying customers. There's obviously different levels of eligibility being, you have to have an eligible device. You have to be, you know, in a certain state, if it's only, um, available in a certain state versus others, et cetera. But generally speaking, um, accessibility and, and, um, availability is, is highest priority there. So we try to make it available to as many customers as possible. Um, and again, already hit on this, um, with the last slide, but during times of peak energy demand, our team and our vendors are sending signals to these connected devices to either discharge stored energy towards the grid. So that would be battery storage, but solar battery, um, or for smart thermostats. So wifi enabled thermostats, we are adjusting the temperature of those thermostats through our manufacturers that we work with, um, like Nest, for example, Google Nest, um, to help kind of lessen that stress on the grid during peak hours. And we are rewarding customers, um, to be participating in those efforts. Um, next slide, please. So let me ask a question about this. Um, yeah.
There's summer peaking in terms of, uh, total capacity, but, um, in the, in the winter, um, as it gets colder at some point, you start dragging in the, um, backup sources, the, and and ultimately, you know, the really nasty stuff like diesel ginsets. Um, what, what's the, where are we relative to normal generation before you start again, dragging in the nastier stuff? Well, you say, how, how much does demand need to go up before we start, you know, cranking up the coal-fired fireplace there? Um, well, it's, it's analog. The coal, you know, normally they're, they're using the combined cycle gas stuff and, uh, and hopefully all the renewables you have available, uh, you get to a point where they have to bring in the peakers and some of the peakers aren't too bad. They're just gas turbines, uh, and, you know, more hydro from Hudson Day. But at some point there, there are the ones that only operate five hours a year because you really don't want to run them any more than you have to. When do you start pulling in the, like what percent of peak? Yeah. How much, what, what I'm, I'm ultimately getting at is for heating, um, heat, heat pumps are great under normal temperatures. What happens when it gets really cold? And, uh, a lot of heat pumps, for example, have electric backups, electric resistance backups. And I suspect that that's really bad in terms of the effect on the grid, but I'm not sure how bad, and that's what I'm trying to get at. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I, I think I see where you're, you're coming from there. I think we're, and this is me, a little bit of speculation here. Um, I would say we're kind of in that period of let's figure that out because I don't think we're quite there yet of, of that being a problem. Um, a lot of our, the, I, I believe the majority of our heating is not electric. It's a lot of oil and gas. Um, I'm not sure what that is specific to Weyland at this moment, but we do have some winter programs that we are developing. And I think if you asked me in a couple, you know, decades, we might be closer, if not at a point of, of winter peaking. Um, but we're, that's just not, it's not, I, I think it's not quite a worry. It is my speculation. Um, but I do see what you are suggesting. And that is, that is an interesting point. Um, I, um, just maybe a related question, and I speak from a relative point of ignorance. Um, you're, you're, you're building, I mean, this is discussion about building all this capacity for, for meeting, uh, a much higher electricity usage and, uh, as time moves on. So there's, you know, you're essentially saying, well, the peak is here now, the peak is going to be up here later in a, in a typical year. How, how often are we at peak and, and what's, you know, there's some consumer programs here to reduce demand, but presumably at that peak, there's a big chunk of big users that are driving that peak demand. What, wouldn't it make some sense to try to reduce that big peak and so that you're not building capacity for an event that occurs 5% of the year, five days a year. And then you have demand rates for the large commercial industrial customers.
Yeah, no, that's, that is a great point. And so the programs I'm focusing on for this presentation are residential, but we do have commercial programs in Massachusetts and the other states, um, where we work with our account executives who have closer relationships with those larger accounts. Um, and we work closely and collaborate on getting those folks enrolled. Um, and that is where a large majority of our overall, like connected solutions umbrella sees the most, um, like megawatts shifted, um, and curtailed during peak hours. So that's, that, that is a great point and definitely, definitely a focus of ours. Um, for, for means of this presentation, I'll be focusing on residential, but I'd be happy to share, um, you know, some online materials with, with Molly afterward, um, just to, to help. And, um, we, we, we, I've seen a little bit of that just in working with towns, um, and have coming across those issues. So I know that our, our team is kind of aware of that and working with towns to be able to kind of like mitigate those situations as well and, and rectify and adjust as needed to. Yeah. So let me, let me focus on, on a residential issue, which I deal with all, all the time. In fact, as a heat pump coach, existing homeowner has a gas oil furnace, wants a heat pump. Question is, should they throw out their oil or gas furnace? And as, as an engineer, my general response is redundancy is a good thing. I think you, if nothing else, you've got backup there. I think you'd be crazy to throw it out, but mass save is telling me in order to get this $10,000 rebate, I have to totally disconnect it. And I'm hearing from, you know, the, the environmental community that I should throw out all fossil fuel stuff at my house. So what should I do? And part of my response is, well, I think that if you hold on to your fossil back up and you, you use it when it gets really, really cold, say down below zero degrees, just to pick a random number. And we have one minus 10 degree here two years ago, three years ago. And, um, if, if that's when, when you use it, that's actually more environmentally responsible, because you're not making the utility turn on that whole dirty nasty stuff. Mass save, it's okay if you buy both the heat pump and a deeper. It's the question of putting a new heat pump with the whole term. No, no, you have to have in, in order to get the 10 grand, you have to be a hundred percent. You guys can debate that on it. I just did. That's more conversation. Some, you're, you're weird in a couple of ways, but anyway, that's, that's the general question. The, should people really be going a hundred percent hit heat pump or should they retain some fossil capability for really cold days and backup? Hmm. Well, there's the answer about how often it's peak, two to three hours.
Yeah. Yeah. Summer peak. Yes. Well, that's, that's, yes. I'm not sure if Gabby or Bill has any insight, otherwise happy to kind of bring it back and see what other folks at our source think about the balancing of fossil fuel and electrification. This is Bill. I just want to, um, um, I had heard anecdotally that there's a way to keep your fossil heating system by signing an affidavit that you don't, it would only be used in emergency situations, uh, of, or maybe a percentage number of five to 10%. I was just looking for the, Steve, I had the form here online, but I, what I'll do is I will double check with the managers of the program specifically to see if number one, it didn't change with this new three-year plan they had. Cause I know we could do it last year where the person would sign the affidavit. Uh, but I will double check that and follow up with Molly and provide that information. Yeah. That's, that's what was the deal two years ago. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I, that's what I'm not a hundred percent sure if that was totally removed from this new three-year plan that we're on, uh, or if it could be left in emergency situations like an infant in the home or elderly person home, something like that, you know, there may be a qualifier for that, for that affidavit. So I'll find out specifically for the new three-year plan and get that information to Molly so she can pass it along. When did you have your registration? A month ago. Okay. But a year ago, I put in one where I didn't replace the furnace and they won't cover the old, you know, they won't cover the heat pump if you don't replace the furnace too. But, uh, if you replace both, they cover it and you're, you're on whatever. So yeah, the Cape you're on. No, I'm here. Those two systems. All right. I'm going to redirect us a little bit. That was, that was very interesting. Thank you for the heat pump, um, dialogue there. I appreciate it. Learned a little bit myself. Um, I'm going to keep us moving through this presentation. So, um, I want to get a little bit deeper into the details of our connected solutions thermostat program. Um, as you can see, um, on the slide here, basically the program enables us to make small adjustments to the devices during times of peak demand. We call them peak energy events to participants. Um, folks can opt out of events at any time by just changing the temperature back on their device if they are unable to participate in that specific event. Um, and they are not penalized for that, um, at this point in the program. Um, these peak energy events last for two to three hours and occur between three and 8 PM, um, from June 1st to September 30th, which is that, uh, demand response season currently. Um, and we call about 15 to 20 events each season, usually the bulk of them being in July, um, the past few years, and then maybe like late June, early August. Um, we rarely call ones in September and June, um, due to weather patterns, um, and then incentives. So you can earn $50 for enrolling each thermostat, and then you get $20 at the end of each season for, per thermostat, um, both in the form of a virtual gift card. We also do have enhanced incentives for both income eligible customers and small business customers. Um, and we can keep moving. By the way, I have a nest, the thermostat. I, I notice it, um, backing off on the temperature setting every once in a while, kind of randomly. And they say something about this is your energy conservation setting or something like that. I, I never got any compensation for that.
Yeah, that, that may be just more of a function on the device itself. There are a lot of like just device functions that are unique to nest or ecobee. I believe nest is called, um, rush hour rewards possibly. I think ecobee's is like community energy savings. They have their own branding and kind of functionality for that on their devices. Um, and so that, that might be what you're thinking of. Um, but yes, nest is eligible for the program. So definitely consider enrolling. Um, the list here is our current compatibility list with what we call our DERMS provider. It's a long acronym. They're called our district distributed energy resource management system. Very much a mouthful. Um, but DERMS is a, is a good acronym for that. So you can basically purchase these devices on our online massive marketplace, um, both at a discounted rate on the marketplace. And there's actually a pre-enroll functionality, um, on the marketplace. You can kind of check a box when you purchase that. And then when you get that device and put it on the wall and connect it to Wi-Fi, it'll automatically, um, send that enrollment through for you. So you don't need to, to go through that, um, enrollment flow. Um, you can keep going. Sorry to interrupt you. Um, maybe I can't get how you register yourself because you, if you have a nest, you might as well. What probably happened is I got mine a long time ago. I'm always, you know, way ahead of the crap. Oh, okay. I probably got mine a long time ago, predating any of this. And then they just. Well, we're, we're looking into if you. Yeah. I'd be happy to share the, the information on how to register and then, um, I get pretty using these devices. Um, and you are looking to use them. You can, you can kind of check both by going through, um, and I'll share that link as well for you. Sounds good. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks. And just noting the, the audio is just slightly choppy. So sorry if I missed something that somebody said at any point, um, I'm hearing the majority, but kind of comes in and out a little bit. Um, all right. So we're getting into our battery storage program. Um, generally it is allowing us to discharge that stored energy towards the grid during these peak hours. So both customers with a standalone battery or someone who has both battery, battery plus solar system, um, you can earn incentives for enrolling. Um, we calculate those incentives based on the average kilowatt that is discharged per event across all the events. So basically we have that average, we call it a battery performance. So your battery performs and between 30 and 60 events, we usually call more like 40 to 50, I would say. Um, and we are calculating that, um, against our incentive rate of $275 per average kilowatt. Um, so that example there, um, a typical home battery might contribute an average of five kilowatts per event, which would earn about 1400 a summer. Um, and, and we're very mindful of weather patterns and we, we acknowledge that a lot of times battery storage is really as a, uh, backup power, um, source for customers. So we make sure to be really close to our weather event. We have forecasting tools, um, to ensure that we aren't calling events during, um, during any type of weather, uh, extreme weather that is happening in the area. Um, and then same season, et cetera, et cetera. Um, I, I looked into our enrollment numbers and it looks like Wayland had about 500 customers and a thousand devices in the thermostat program, um, and about 25 battery customers. I think the majority being Tesla, uh, Tesla batteries, um, in the battery program. So that is great to see. Yeah. Is this overall or just in 2023? Just to confirm. This is, this is overall. So current accepted devices. So yeah. Um, awesome. So I'm going to move into managed charging and move forward. Um, so what is managed charging? So managed charging comes kind of from the same vein as the other programs I just went through connected solutions. Um, basically you're receiving rewards for using less energy when others are using more and helping us maintain that a healthy electric grid as EV adoption continues to increase. Um, our managed, managed charging programs encourage folks to charge their EVs during off peak hours. Um, and that helps us decrease that demand during, um, high demand hours. Keep moving. Thank you. Yeah. I think it's no brainer. You should be doing that. I mean, I plug my electric car whenever I pull into the garage because I have no reason to do anything else, but I could easily just set it to charge five hours later. There's no reason to bother because right now I have no incentive to do it. So absolutely you need to be doing that. Mm hmm. Yeah. I appreciate that. Um, and I think there's a call out on a later slide, but maybe I should have mentioned a couple of slides ago in the intro slide that we actually just got managed charging approved for Massachusetts. We've been working for this, um, for a few years now, um, developing this program with our stakeholders and it is coming in early 2026. Um, I think probably by the spring, we should be able to launch it. So that is kind of fresh off the press and I'm excited to, to have our Massachusetts customers be able to leverage, um, these, these incentives and kind of, um, um, participate. Um, and so kind of to build off of your point there, why, why does managed charging matter? Um, it really helps build the foundation for a reliable, um, EV adoption in the future. Um, it's supporting the shift from gas to plug-in hybrid and EVs. Um, it's advanced, it's helping to advance our utility preparation for grid constraints, electric grid constraints that come from, for example, if multiple neighbors are owning EVs in a concentrated area. Um, it also allows Eversource the visibility into where and when charging is occurring. So we can really dive into how that might affect a specific substation feeder or transformer. Um, and that's going to be key to kind of really building the foundation for a reliable, uh, reliable grid, um, even on very localized level. Um, and thus that visibility guides us to really have the targeted electric grid upgrades as adoption increases. So it can be more of a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach of, you know, if a substation, um, fails or, or what have you, we can do that ahead of that. Um, and then of course we're contributing to the ISO New England peak shaving and resilience, which is a big part of what we do on my team and in our department. Um, so yeah, I will ask for next slide. Yes. Yes. I know you're also planning on installing time of use meters, uh, in the next three years or so. Um, won't that, uh, sort of automatically pull this in? How will you integrate that with this? That's a beautiful question that we are currently, um, looking into that's going to really, really allow us to kind of better optimize the program in a more automated fashion. Um, and I don't know where it's going to go, but I'm excited for that. Um, we've been excited to get AMI for a while now. And, um, as deployment continues, our team has been really honing in on how we can best leverage these kind of smart devices to kind of connect into that, um, that AMI, uh, process and really allow us to like kind of almost pick and choose and, and really, um, allow customers to enhance their energy efficiency and, um, efforts. And yeah, I think this is the time for us to really be, you know, testing and looking at use cases and things like that. But if that's a really great question and it's really actually top of mind for us right now. Um, and we, we definitely plan to leverage that visibility for sure. Um, quick slide on EV home charging incentives. So we do offer rebates towards a wiring or panel upgrade to power a level two charger. So a smart charger, basically, rather than just a plugin. Um, the rebate amounts listed below are an up to the maximum shown, um, exact amounts do depend on eligibility, home type, et cetera, et cetera, which are things that we, you know, include, um, to input in the, uh, enrollment process. Um, so the standard rebate here shows single family homes may receive up to $700. A small multifamily homes, which is a two to four unit home may receive up to $1,400. Um, low income discount rebates for single family homes may receive up to $1,700. Small multifamily homes for low income may receive up to $2,700. And you may also receive a rebate for up to a hundred percent of the cost of the charger itself. And I will highlight that it says you may, so it is situational to your, to your eligibility. Um, and we have a link there below for more information. Um, if we want to share that out to the folks, um, after this presentation.
Thank you, Molly. Um, interested in our program that opens next year? I definitely am, but I don't have an an EV. Um, so please send an email to ma manage charging at eversource.com can definitely share that email out later on as well. So you don't have to scribble it down. Um, but we are keeping tabs on a list of interested customers, um, for the past few years. So we have a great, um, list of candidates to reach out to immediately once the program is open for enrollment, which we believe will be in the spring of 26, 2026, um, which is not that far away. Um, so yeah, please shoot us an email if you're interested. Um, what a program might look like in Massachusetts. Um, these slides were originally created before the, um, approval. We re it really is fresh off the press. So this is kind of a, what can it look like, but what will it probably look like? Um, and next slide, please. Um, as we continue to kind of develop the launch of the program. So how does it benefit customers? Some of this is a little, um, repetitive of earlier slides, but just to really hone in on the benefits to the customer, which is, um, obviously of utmost importance to us earning rewards. We love that love to earn rewards, especially for meeting monthly charging goals. Um, we're trying to minimize the risk of local electric grid constraints, especially for customers, um, in a neighborhood or community that might have a lot of EVs in a certain, um, densely populated area. Um, reducing demand on those nearby transformers and substations. Um, it really gets you ready to take part in future EV programs. I think one of the folks in the room had mentioned, you know, why wouldn't you? And I think sometimes it really is a behavioral thing as well. Like we want to help encourage and kind of make folks aware of just small changes in the behavior in their day to day that could help, um, make a difference there. Um, and of course, with that, you're able to gain those insights into how those habits and behaviors are making an impact and really do make a difference in, um, what we're trying to achieve here. Um, next slide, please. I think this and, and encouraging townspeople to do this is supposed to be one of our, our activities. One of the things we're going to talk about here soon, right? Is that I'll be out there. Mm-hmm. I'm waiting on town managers at Google and I'm ready to run with it. So hopefully we can do that. But yeah. Yeah, no, I really, I really appreciate that comment and, um, would be happy to, I think as we, as we develop the launch of the program, I think something I'm really keen on doing is getting like a webinar set up for all of the interested customers and others, um, to, for customers to really be able to like have a live, um, introduction to the program. Cause these are, you know, these are our newer concepts to a lot of people. Um, and we want to make it accessible and make it make sense for folks. So yeah, we appreciate the work that you're doing and, you know, would be happy to collaborate if you want, you know, collateral in the future of, you know, a one pager, things like that. We try to make, um, this information really accessible online and, and for, for all of our customers. So thank you for that. We're down with a highly educated populace and I think a lot of the ownership. So, um, when, when you target markets to, to work with, explicitly think of us. Absolutely. Definitely hear that. Thank you. Um, quick, so quick overview of the path to participation. Um, so we have two different tiers. Um, we have our off-peak tier. Um, sorry. We have our off-peak rewards program, which is the baseline tier. Um, basically participants are more manually earning rewards. The expectation really is to charge during off-peak times at least 80% of the time and have at least one 15 minute, um, home charging section. I think that actually might need to say 90%. Um, I think for Massachusetts, it's 90%. Um, so excuse that edit. Um, but basically the intention is more of a, you know, is more of a, you know, do it yourself type of mentality. Um, I would say nine out of 10 times customers are just implementing a charging schedule in their, in their charger or their vehicle app, which most, if not all, you know, manufacturers have those. And it's pretty simple and, and allows the customer to do kind of a set it and forget it mentality without having that, um, direct control, which the direct control is more a part of the schedule.
Um, so the participants are earning monthly rewards for staying on their charging schedule, which is a, um, optimized schedule that Eversource and our vendors, um, do to optimize, um, both for the participants schedule and the grid needs. Um, so the expectation there is more of an, um, of not having a schedule override. So you can have no more than two, um, um, to override the schedule during peak charging, um, out peak charging hours, and then having at least one 15 minute home charging session a month. Um, and yeah, participants are able to set those preferences for how much charge you need and by when. So we really try to help optimize that to not make it, um, you know, a burden on customers. And it's a really, it's a really good approach for a set it and forget it mentality where the, the utility is able to, um, you know, run, run that process on behalf of the, of the participant.
Um, yeah. And maybe next slide. I think that was at the last one. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. I'll share out all the links for participation and any links that we referenced. Um, I'll share the PowerPoint itself. Um, and then yeah, if any, any additional questions come up as you're. Yeah. I mean, I've been thinking about this, which I'm sure that's all you guys are going to do. Right. What I haven't heard, heard mentioned is what I know you're running as, as a pilot project right now, which is actually. Actively using EV batteries for grid backup. Uh, moving energy in and out of them for, uh, you know, you're running that because I tried to apply to, to be in the pilot. Um, fortunately that there's an issue with my, my particular year of model of car that, um, I, I couldn't. But, um, um, to, um, many of us in the, the engineering community, uh, all of those kilowatt hours that are, are stored and battered in, in, in garages all over the place is, uh, an incredible resource that, uh, you really ought to be taking advantage of.
Absolutely. That's, that's a big, you're just hitting all the big topics. I think you're reading my mind. So that's, that's a big topic for us too. It's high on our priority list. I think part of it is, you know, there needs to be a little bit more development, um, in the field and across the company at large. It's not just like our team and the energy efficiency folks, but we're getting into, you know, we really need to cross collaborate with how do we interconnect these, these, you know, vehicle to grid EVs and batteries to make sure that it's, you know, done in a safe manner. And the, the discharge towards the grid from that device is, is, you know, safe and we have visibility into where and when that's happening. So we're not overdoing it with, with, you know, making sure things are exporting safely. Um, so right now that's, that's a big thing we're really working from the ground up, um, internally mostly right now is, you know, how can we work with our interconnection team who, you know, naturally and understandably want to be, you know, precautious of new devices and, and new technologies to make sure it's done the right way from the beginning. Um, so we don't see any, um, you know, uh, repercussions from, um, you know, not ensuring that the interconnection process is, is a priority. So that's, that's one of the topics I'd say is, is high on our list. And actually we, we got news the last couple of weeks that I think there's been some strides in, in setting up like a V to X or V to G kind of flow in our interconnection system. So we can really start to make that a part of our like normal day-to-day processes. Um, so really good point and definitely, definitely something my team specifically is, you know, jumping for joy about being able to really implement and, and, and leverage. Cause to your point, it is a huge, you know, untapped resource that we'd love to figure out how to do, but we want to do it the right way and the safe way for, for our customers. So appreciate that comment. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if you're the right one to ask, but along those, those kinds of lines, um, we have. We have this huge issue in New England of our, uh, off shore wind strategy was, um, kind of tanked in the last few months. Um, but we, we still have the possibility of rooftop solar all over the place. Um, can, um, can, and that gets into an issue ultimately a few, and it's all enough of that. Do you run into grid instabilities solution to that seems to be grid forming inverters. Uh, are you guys looking at that at all?
Yeah, I would say that's a little bit out of my wheelhouse. I'll be honest. Um, we are, you know, adjacently involved with our solar team. Um, naturally being that our customers are their customers and they have, you know, solar plus battery systems. Um, I'm really, I'm really not sure. Um, that's an interesting question. Um, yeah, Molly, would you mind to take that note? And we could, we could follow up with the solar team there. I think we're going to have to wrap it up with our question. And it's left. Yeah. Okay. Is there any like final points ever source wants to make or. I'll show. Great question. Great question. Uh, no, just thank you for having us. Um, I hope that this was informative and helpful for you all. Um, and then, like I said, I'll share all the resources. If any questions come up while you're thinking about the presentation or looking through anything, um, feel free to reach out. Um, um, I'll, Olivia can share my, um, contact information. So you can either reach out through Olivia or reach out directly to me and I'll, um, I'll work internally to get some answers for you guys. Thank you. Thank you all for joining me. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good night. Enjoy the conversation. Have a great night.
Moving on to you. Moving on. But first, Molly, thank you. Sorry about the beginning of this. Um, yeah, feel free to like, if you want to listen or pop out, but thank you for your time. I do have to pop out because we're, we have, um, we're implementing our storm structure. So I have to hop on to Paul and, and a little bit, uh, just make sure we're all prepared for that. But thank you again so much for having me. It was great meeting you guys. Um, like I said, any questions that come up? Oh, I do have, I forgot to have some, um, just energy efficiency resources for you guys. So I'll share some of these. Yeah. And take a look, um, just, um, some collateral for any information that we have on energy efficiency. I'll give a couple to you, um, as well, Olivia, in case there's any folks that weren't coming here that, um, are interested. Um, no problem. Yeah. And like I said, just feel free to reach out. I'll share all that information with Olivia to share with you guys. I'll share my contact information and always happy to have a conversation. If I don't know the answer, I know somebody that does. So I'll find it. Thank you. Thank you guys. The high winds coming. Yeah. Thank you. Hopefully it's not as bad for predicting, but we'll see. We'll see. You guys are, have all the green trees that are always coming down. So, um, so do you want to, so I don't want to be me just give me a big rundown. I think you know, the home performance thing, because we just spent about all this time on issues around dentists for residential and now, now we're supposedly going to have somebody help us. Yes. So, um, um, Christopher, I don't know if you're still with us, but just to give you some, bye, have a good, bye. Bye. Um, just to give you some context, um, are you still there? Still here. Thanks. I, in the sustainability department, we put out an RFQ request for qualifications, um, for home, um, a mass save approved vendor to do home energy assessments. Um, so basically they would partner with the town, um, it's not like a financial relationship. We're not paying them. Um, they're not paying us. Um, basically they would use the town seal, um, they would have backing from the sustainability department and access to our customer base. They would canvas, they would come to community events and table, um, and then they would offer services like home energy assessments for free, like mass, um, save offers, um, and then hopefully encourage people to purchase heat pumps, et cetera, stuff like that. Um, what would you call this outfit? Um, what would you call this outfit? Home performance. Home performance contractor. Um, so we had three people send in, um, I guess we'll call it like responses to the RFQ. Um, I do like have a selection where they've been kind of waiting for a response from the sustainability department, just cause, um, our town manager, Michael McCall was just kind of vetting the process and making a decision. And he's obviously got a lot on his plate, but it is on his like desk and I'm waiting on an answer. So I'll continue to be persistent with that. This will be a mass save qualify. Yes. Yeah. I only submitted it out to, or published the RFQ to people that were approved vendors. Um, but I think it would be a really good opportunity that I would be interested to see how many people actually did, um, like the mass save program currently, not just in 2023, but that number was kind of low considering, you know, the amount of people. It was incredible. Yeah. But that's one year. That's only one year. Right. So it'd be nice to see more current numbers on if that's possible, but, um, it's just kind of more of a reason to work with someone and get people on board. Um, I, I, I guess I don't understand. Did you say they're not being paid? No. So what'd you say? It's not like a financial thing. So the company would basically, um, meet with, they said that they would meet with me like once a week or bi-weekly and they would just say, oh, like we're going to do door to door not being in the constituent neighborhood this weekend and trying to get people to sign up for energy assessments. You know what I mean? Um, they might have banners for us to hang up, get your home, you know, energy assessment done. It's free mass save. Um, they, you know, we had Wayland day, they might table and offer, you know, brochures and different things like that. Um, and we would, you know, put the town seal on their items. So it would look like, you know, would give them more of a credit and people would probably feel more comfortable working with them. Yeah. We, we had this kind of a program. You worked with them with Nico and Ellen and Anne kind of headed that. They, um, from what I understood, they didn't have extreme success with it. I think they said they had like 200 homes. Um, which like, again, it's better than no homes, but I, you know, being new in Wayland, I think it'd be a good opportunity for me to meet more people. And then now learning about all this, cause this is new to me, what we heard, I think it would be like you said, a lot of that at first source information isn't very accessible to people. So this would be a good chance to really push that. Um, do you have a comment, Christopher?
Yeah. And, and let me apologize. I don't really know exactly. It's my first time even listening to this meeting. So I don't know what the guidelines are for public interaction. So if I'm commenting at the wrong time, we are kind of unusual in that we, we invite the public to actively participate. Most boards will not let you do that, but we like that. Excellent. I, I am a rule follower. So I like to follow the rules. Um, I just, I just raised my hand for one reason. Um, you mentioned, uh, Olivia, that the town seal will be used. And I think that that's a really important comment, um, and, and, and notion because I don't know what other people's experiences are at their home address. At my home address, I am receiving boatloads of mail pieces with various different organizations talking about heat pumps, talking about installing. And so it's very hard to distinguish for-profit efforts that are trying to, um, in some way make a buck on the process of giving me heat pumps. I already have three heat pumps installed in my house, so I don't need any more. Um, but the, there's, there's, there's a lot out there. And so I would, I would say it's really good using the, the town seal and you might actually consider asking for a right of, um, review before they send out their materials, just so you can check exactly how they're using that seal, not to reduce it, but to increase the, the expectation of people distinguishing it from all of the spam. Great. Um, thank you. Yeah, that's a really good point. And definitely the, the aim for using the town seal is to build comfort and just reliability with that company. But I hear you, we definitely don't want to just be dishing out our seal to anyone. So definitely going to work, um, those bi-weekly and weekly calls that I would have with our vendor, um, would allow me to kind of review with what, what they're putting out to the public. But yeah, thank you. In fact, uh, Olivia, as I recall the last time we did something like this, there was a lot of worry that, uh, we didn't want to be legally responsible for, for what the vendor did. Uh, Michael is probably a lot more sensitive to that kind of issue than I am. Um, but also an attorney, so yeah, it's also an attorney. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. He, um, so, I mean, I, I've spoken with him about this on a couple different occasions and like, obviously if he says like, no, we can't continue and pursue it. But if he's comfortable with it, um, the RFQ, it, again, I submitted it, like, or I put it out to the vendors probably like three months ago now. Um, but there is specific language in there where like, we're not bound to working with them for longer than we want to. It's, um, you know, not, they're not financially going to benefit from working with us. Um, they do have to meet with me or a sustainability member, you know, a certain amount of times per month. So we're not going to be just like letting them run wild with the town seal, but I hear what you're saying for sure.
Great. Um, but yeah, the only other thing that I guess is really pressing is that report that I put in the packet. Um, I'm very new, you know, I'm sorry, my six month Abby left and I kind of was like thrown into the fire a little bit, um, this green community. We understand. Okay. Thank you. Because this green communities report, um, I didn't really know anything about it and it's, it was due November. Well, it is due November 7th. He got it in. Michael McCall signed it. So we're good. But it's something that the town has to submit yearly. Um, so we continue to be in good standing with green communities and have access to all that funding that Julie was talking about. Um, so that report is in. So that's good. Um, and we're still in the process of applying for climate leaders. I think, you know, as we kind of have a fresh start with Julie being here, she has a lot of experience working with Weston, very similar community to Weyland. Um, I'm really excited on kind of really working on building a stronger relationship between, um, us as staff and you guys as volunteers. I know you have a lot of expertise and I'd love to work more side by side and see how we can collaborate more. Um, once Julie is a little more settled, it's literally the second week she's been here and, um, you know, technical difficulties are aside. I think we can kind of sit down and kind of talk to you guys about how you guys want to see it playing forward with us and how we can work together. I don't know if you guys have any thoughts on that. Nope. Absolutely. Julie sounds like she's got some great ideas and some really good experience. Yes. So I think that'll be going to make your job easier. Yes. Yeah. That's a, that's a good thing. Uh, it sounds like the next step is to get these, the decarbonization roadmap and the EV policy approved so that we can get it in the, the, uh, the state process there. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. And if, um, by chance it doesn't happen in December, there's another application in the spring. So if it doesn't work out, like it'll be okay, but I'd love to see it happen for us in December, but it's kind of, um, we can, I'm, I'm not sure what, um, Julie had said, I don't know if this can classify as a public meeting just because of the zoom, this is a Whalen zoom call, but I don't know. Cause it's, it wasn't the correct zoom link that was posted. So, um, you didn't have a member of the public participate and make it up. Yeah. I'll be it. Not right. And we had a quorum. We had a quorum and you did all the right stuff. I think it's a legal meeting. Yeah. I think we move forward as if it is, if it is, cause it is, um, and, and that's a good thing. So if, if you have anything else to share before we move on in the minutes and the next meeting, I'm good. If you guys are upset. Okay. So I, I had it on my calendar that our, our next meeting. Is December, December 9th, which is Tuesday at 4.30 again. Yep. That's what I've got. Okay. For me. Okay. If that's, if that works for everyone, I'll just. Good. Great. Um, everybody received the minutes. And I would, I would entertain a motion to, uh, well, just one comment on the schedules. Uh, are we going to maintain a particular, what second Tuesday of the month going forward? We're trying to think, we'll see whether it'll be set. January meeting. I think, um, Alan is the one that sends out the invites. Yeah. Right now I have it for, for January 13th. So that, so we're going to, looks like we're set for a second, was it second Tuesday of the month or 30 so far for a couple of months. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. At least two of them. Okay. That would be a great thing. Yep. That would, cause I've got other organizations that are doing exactly the same thing. And I want to make sure I can separate. Okay. So, um, we, we have the minutes from September 24th. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Well, a second. I'll second. I hope so. I'll lose it. He can second. All those are in favor. I, uh, go show it as unanimous three to zero approval of the minutes. Um, and.