Energy Efficiency In Boston’s Financial Sector: Strategies For Profitability – New England typically reaches its highest demand for electricity in the summer when warmer weather leads to increased use of energy-intensive air conditioning.

Until 1989, New England was a winter-peak system, and in the early 1990s the region had almost two winter and summer peaks. Increasing use of air conditioning and a decline in electric heating contributed to this dramatic change.

Energy Efficiency In Boston’s Financial Sector: Strategies For Profitability

The region’s millions of households and businesses create demand for electricity on the power grid, which must be produced when it is needed, as electricity cannot easily be stored in large quantities. (Learn how ISO New England runs the power grid.)

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Peak demand is the highest amount of electricity used in one hour, and the ISO must ensure that the region has enough power sources to meet the peak. The table below shows the days with the highest peak demand recorded in New England since the ISO began managing the power grid in 1997. The highest peaks typically occur during the work week in the summer. Note that if the demand for electricity from the regional grid decreases, these records will be harder to break. However, high peaks in demand still occur, and New England’s power system must remain prepared to meet these peaks, even if they are not historically high.

Data for the top ten demand days comes from the Daily Summary or Hourly Data Report, available on the Zonal Information page. The daily peak load for the regional system is recorded in the “System_Peak” column on the “ISONE CA” worksheet. The column “DT” (date type) represents the day of the week, where Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7.

Annual energy consumption is now lower than in the early 2000s. But as shown in the table below, levels of peak demand – the highest amount of electricity used in one hour – have not fallen. New England’s power system is planned and operated to serve demand during these peak hours, which still see spikes on hot, humid summer days, even if annual use is not historically high.

Today, 20% of the total system capacity is provided by distributed energy sources that reduce the demand on the grid and the need to enable or build power plants and other generation sources.

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Government policies and revenue for wholesale markets are driving the rapid growth of energy efficiency (EE) and demand response. New England states are investing billions of dollars in EE programs that promote the use of energy-efficient appliances and lighting and advanced cooling and heating technologies (nearly $6.9 billion on EE programs from 2015–2021 and another $10.8 billion between 2023 and 2032). Nearly 4,000 MW of demand capacity resources (including demand response, energy efficiency measures, and distributed generation) reduce electricity demand from the New England power grid—that’s more than 11% of system capacity purchased in the Forward Capacity Auction . And New England is first in the nation to innovate and enable demand resources to fully participate in the energy and reserve markets.

Providing incentives for local/residential solar energy is also a top priority for New England policymakers, with the states spending billions of dollars to make solar energy affordable for consumers. In 2010, New England had about 40 MW of behind-the-meter solar photovoltaic (BTM PV) resources. Today, the region’s BTM PV installations have a combined nameplate generating capacity of more than 3,000 MW. The region is on track to surpass 6,000 MW in the coming decade. Although these sources do not participate in the markets, the markets are flexible to changes in the demand of the grid, so grid electricity is not over produced – or over bought. See how hourly load varies by season and with the impact of solar energy.

The ISO forecasts that both energy consumption and peak demand in New England will increase over the next 10 years. The primary factors for this increase are the additional energy and loads resulting from the electrification of the transport and heating sectors. The ISO develops the gross long-term forecast for electricity demand using state and regional economic forecasts, years of weather history in New England, and electrification forecasts. Results from both the ISO’s energy efficiency (EE) forecast and solar photovoltaic (PV) forecast are applied to the gross forecast to develop a net long-term forecast. Since EE and PV reduce the amount of electricity consumers draw from the bulk power system, the net forecast represents the actual grid demand. Every morning, thousands of energy professionals turn to our newsletters for the day’s most important news. Sign up for free to get the latest straight to your inbox.

The Energy News Network is powered by support from readers like you. Your contribution will help support vital reporting on regional energy issues that helps inform and inform important public policy discussions.

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Harbor Village apartments in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The 30-unit affordable housing complex was built to the passive house standard with support from a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant. Credit: Sarah Shemkus

A pair of statewide incentive programs in Massachusetts is driving an increase in apartment buildings designed for the highly energy-efficient passive house standard.

In the past year, families have moved into 257 affordable housing units in complexes built to the standard, and approximately 6,000 additional units are now in various stages of development.

Early figures indicate that this construction approach costs on average less than 3% more than conventional construction and can roughly cut energy consumption in half. Air quality is higher in these buildings and residents report that the units are more comfortable to live in. Many developers who have tried passive house building are so happy with the benefits for residents that they like to build more projects to the standard.

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“We’re getting closer and closer to the mainstream,” said Aaron Gunderson, executive director of Passive House Massachusetts. “The incentives help people get over that initial hesitation to change and, once they discover what passive house is, there’s no looking back.”

Passive House is a performance standard that requires a drastic reduction in energy consumption compared to a similar, conventionally designed structure. Buildings that meet the standard have airtight envelopes, insulating windows, and continuously insulated exterior walls.

In Massachusetts, single-family homes built to the passive house standard have been on the rise since the early 2000s, Gunderson said. The approach is particularly suitable for use in multifamily buildings: Because they contain many units within one super-tight building envelope, the ratio of exterior surface to living space can be very cost-effective, said architects. Until recently, however, developers were skittish about trying a new, higher-cost approach on these larger projects.

In 2018, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center stepped in with a grant program aimed at reducing these financial concerns. The Passive House Design Challenge awarded eight affordable housing developments $4,000 per unit – for a total of $1.73 million – for new construction built to the passive house standard. The selected projects range from 30 units in the oceanfront city of Gloucester to 135 units in the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan.

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Then, in July 2019, Mass Save, the organization that administers the legally mandated energy efficiency programs of utilities, launched its own passive house incentives. Available for both affordable and market-rate developments, the incentives offer payments for each phase of construction: Up to $5,000 is available for feasibility studies and up to $20,000 for pre-construction energy modeling. Additional money is paid upon certification.

These incentives have been essential to fueling the growth of high-performance multifamily building, said Dave Traggorth, head of real estate consulting firm Traggorth Companies, which is currently developing two passive house projects with a total of 57 units.

“Anything that takes some of the bite out of costs is helpful, especially in an environment where costs are going up every day,” he said. “It’s definitely an important part of the equation.”

Within the Mass Save program, buildings that attempt to build to the standard but fall short of certification are also eligible for a performance award.

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“This is good because most people are afraid of this idea of ​​pass-fail,” said Beverly Craig, senior program manager at the clean energy center. “They give you a bonus for trying.”

Five of the eight projects that received the Clean Energy Center grants are now occupied, and the reports on the projects are very encouraging, Craig said. The results so far suggest that cost increases are mainly driven by the need for better ventilation systems, the price of high-performance doors and windows, and the cost of having the building’s performance professionally verified, she said. The costs for heating and cooling equipment, on the other hand, are generally lower in passive house construction, she noted, because less power is needed to control the climate inside the airtight envelope.

Boston-based contractor company Haycon, for example, delved into high-performance building techniques with an apartment development it built in 2020. Although that building was not passive house-certified, Haycon’s experience on the project convinced the company to pursue future passive house developments. The company is currently building three multifamily projects according to the passive house process – one in Boston, one in the adjacent city of Chelsea, and one in the suburb of Hamilton.

“We are learning something

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