Energy policy leaders from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island presented their plans and priorities at the third annual Environmental Business Council of New England Energy Leadership Conference.

Here are some of the conversations we heard during the virtual event last week.

Connecticut

Energy efficiency is “a huge part” of the strategy for reaching 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2040 in Connecticut, said Michael Li, bureau chief for Energy and Technology Policy at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. That strategy is outlined in a 2019 executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont and the state’s draft Integrated Resources Plan, but energy affordability is important to the state as well. (See IRP Details Conn.’s Paths to Carbon-free Future.)

“Connecticut has the highest electricity rates in the continental U.S., and we realize that’s a significant challenge, particularly as we think about a future that includes a lot of electrification,” Li said. “There’s a natural economic disincentive to electrification when we have high electricity rates.”

Part of the challenge for Connecticut, he said, is making energy more affordable for residential and commercial ratepayers. The state’s investor-owned utilities, Eversource Energy and United Illuminating, are mandated by law to produce a conservation and load management plan with a demand management component. Residential participants in demand management programs increased from approximately 15,000 in 2020 to more than 20,000 this year, as the state asked utilities to expand participation, Li said.

During the 2019-2021 plan term, energy efficiency and demand management initiatives will result in electric lifetime savings of 8.9 billion kWh, natural gas lifetime savings of 28.4 billion cubic feet, oil lifetime savings of 70.9 million gallons, propane lifetime savings of 20.7 million gallons and a combined annual peak demand reduction of 213 MW.

The plan also produces significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in GHG emissions with 7.3 million tons less of carbon dioxide and further reductions in other air pollutants, such as sulfur and nitrous oxides.

Carbon emissions in the transportation sector could have been on the path for reductions, he said. But the Connecticut General Assembly failed to pass enabling legislation for the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program. (See TCI-P Faces Uncertain Future in Connecticut.)

Maine

Maine needs to reduce emissions burdens in the transportation and heating sectors to reach its GHG emission reduction requirements, said Dan Burgess, director of the Maine Governor’s Energy Office.

The state has set reductions of 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050, in addition to carbon neutrality by 2045. Transportation is responsible for 54% of the state’s emissions.

“We need to embrace electrification of the transportation sector,” Burgess said.

The Maine Climate Council, in its four-year climate action plan, set targets to achieve transportation-related emissions-reduction goals by putting 41,000 light-duty electric vehicles on the road in Maine by 2025 and 219,000 by 2030.

Gov. Janet Mills set a goal of 100,000 new heat pumps in Maine by 2025 to help reduce the state’s dependence on home heating oil.

Burgess said that as Maine looks to reduce emissions through transportation and heating, “we need to make sure we get the clean energy there” to back up those efforts. In June 2019, Mills signed legislation that increased Maine’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 80% by 2030 and set a goal of 100% by 2050.

Maine did a 10-year economic study that found the state needs to add 800-900 MW of renewable energy by 2030, Burgess said. In September, the Maine Public Utilities Commission announced the procurement of 546 MW of renewable energy. Solar will account for 482 MW of the 546 MW of the approved projects, with wind (20 MW), hydroelectric (4.5 MW) and biomass (39 MW) making up the remainder. (See Maine Makes Record Renewable Procurement.)

The economic study, Burgess said, showed that transmission “is a real key for us to meet our RPS,” as is the opportunity for resource diversity.

Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, energy leaders have done a significant amount of policy planning that the “long-term roadmap to decarbonization will require,” Patrick Woodcock, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, said.

The roadmap, he said, relies on significant clean energy developments in New England to spur decarbonization of the transportation and heating sectors “that could be dominated by offshore wind, as well as solar.”

Transmission planning is also a critical part of the equation, including how to foster regional cooperation to upgrade the system. Energy storage, Woodcock added, can also be “a big part” of balancing what type of distribution system upgrades are required.

“I think we’re only scratching the surface of how storage might be able to be used as a distribution system tool to manage interconnection and to provide a longer runway for our distributed resources,” he said.

Additionally, energy storage offers benefits to the transmission system that Woodcock said is starting to see “real constraints” of long-term planning on integrating OSW. Massachusetts, he said, has been working with ISO-NE on how energy storage may accommodate OSW resources at interconnection points.

“I do think we’re at the cusp of even utilizing storage in a way that manages our distribution and transmission system and mitigates the need for significant upgrades,” he said.

Rhode Island

Passage of the Act on Climate in Rhode Island this spring was “exciting” because it includes mandatory and binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets that set the state on a path to achieving net-zero emissions, said Carrie Gill, administrator of grid modernization and systems integration for Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources.

The law moves the state’s current emissions reduction target from 80% by 2050 to 2040. In addition, the 45% reduction goal is moved from 2035 to 2030, and Rhode Island must achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Like Connecticut, Rhode Island also failed to enact legislation for TCI-P. However, Gill said there could be a special session for TCI-P and she expects “to see some discussions” on it.