Massachusetts public power utility Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant is joining Connected Homes, a Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company residential demand response program that allows residential customers to better manage Wi-Fi-connected devices in their homes while reducing their carbon footprint.
By enrolling a smart device in the Connected Homes program, customers agree to allow their light department 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. Customers are informed of possible adjustments in advance via email or text message. Enrolled customers are given a bill credit.
Specific brands and models of thermostats, home batteries, electric vehicle chargers, electric hot water heaters, and mini-split controllers are eligible for incentives under the Connected Homes program.
“Connected Homes is helping HMLP and its customers make 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,” HMLP noted on Aug. 1.
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 setting an automatic schedule,” it said.
Connected Homes, initially launched in April 2020 with 11 municipal light plants, 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.
HMLP joins 14 other MLPs currently participating in Connected Homes. The other light departments in the program include those in Belmont, Chicopee, Holden, Holyoke, Ipswich, Mansfield, Marblehead, Peabody, Princeton, Shrewsbury, South Hadley, Sterling, Wakefield, and West Boylston.
“After exploring various options, HMLP is thrilled to deliver a demand response solution to our ratepayers,” said HMLP Sustainability Coordinator Brianna Bennett. “Connected Homes is a tool that will empower our community to embrace energy efficiency as we strive for a connected, electric, and carbon-free Hingham.”
“Connected Homes is an effective way for customers to help their local light department take control of the cost of energy and keep MLP rates low,” said MMWEC Sustainable Energy Program & Policy Senior Manager Zoe Eckert. “We are excited to begin offering this program in Hingham.”
