Concord Municipal Light Plant, the consumer-owned utility serving the community of Concord, Mass., is joining Connected Homes, the innovative residential voluntary demand response program offered by the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company.
Connected Homes allows residential customers to better manage Wi-Fi connected devices in their homes while reducing their carbon footprint.
Connected Homes, launched in April 2020 with an initial group of 11 municipal light plants (MLPs), is offered through MMWEC’s electrification and decarbonization program, NextZero.
NextZero works through Connected Homes to allow customers of the participating MLPs to leverage the technology of smart appliances and devices into energy and cost savings for the light department and its customers.
By voluntarily enrolling a smart device in the Connected Homes program, customers agree to allow CMLP to make brief, limited adjustments to their devices during times of peak electric demand, such as temporarily reducing the charging rate of an electric vehicle during peak hours or raising the temperature on thermostats and mini-split controllers three degrees.
Customers are informed of possible adjustments in advance via email or text message and given the choice to opt out of each adjustment.
Customers earn rewards for their enrollment monthly, which are issued via quarterly bill credits.
Connected Homes is a tool to help CMLP residents manage their smart devices during Time of Use (TOU) rates. While TOU rates will not be in effect in 2025, CMLP residents can sign up for Connected Homes now and receive a bill credit per device for early applications and use.
Bill credits will only be available to earn through the end of this year.
CMLP joins 18 other MLPs currently participating in Connected Homes, including those in Belmont, Chicopee, Hingham, Holden, Holyoke, Ipswich, Mansfield, Marblehead, Peabody, Princeton, Reading, Shrewsbury, South Hadley, Sterling, Stowe, VT, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston.
Specific brands and models of thermostats, home batteries, electric vehicles and chargers, electric hot water heaters, and mini-split controllers are eligible for incentives under the Connected Homes program.
Connected Homes is helping CMLP and its customers navigate the clean energy transition by making the electrification of residential heating, transportation, and cooking put less stress on the electric grid, while reducing end use carbon emissions, MMWEC noted.
Through participation in Connected Homes, the growing number of customers moving toward electrification can easily and conveniently manage their home’s energy use by adjusting the device’s energy usage remotely, or by setting an automatic schedule, MMWEC said.
“Connected Homes is an excellent way for our customers to manage Time of Use rates effortlessly. Sign up this year to receive monthly bill credits, then automatically see savings next year when Time of Use rates go into effect,” said CMLP’s Assistant Director of Power Supply & Energy Management Laura Scott. “With five years of operational experience, Connected Homes is a reliable tool for our customers from day one.”
“Connected Homes is an effective way for customers with smart technology devices to help their local light department take control of the cost of energy and keep MLP rates low,” says MWMEC Sustainable Energy Program & Policy Senior Manager Zoe Eckert. “We are excited to begin offering this program in Concord.”
Concord Municipal Light Plant serves approximately 8,335 customers in the communities of Concord, Lincoln, and Acton.
MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.
MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state’s consumer-owned, municipal utilities.
