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Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), gives
. . . Vermont's utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP),
. . . advice on how to boost its limited uptake of :
. . . . . . Tesla Powerwalls,
. . . . . . Smart water heaters,
. . . . . . EV chargers, and other
. . . . . . Distributed Energy Resources (DER),
. . . to meet the state’s aggressive clean energy goals.

GMP, which serves:
. . . . . . 220,000 residential,
. . . . . . 41,000 commercial, and
. . . . . . 70 industrial customers across
. . . . . . 7,500 square miles, has officially dubbed itself an
. . . “Energy Transformation Company,”
. . . with an eye on tapping all available opportunities emerging from:
. . . . . . low-cost solar batteries,
. . . . . . electric vehicles, and
. . . . . . flexible energy controls.

Tesla Powerwall deployments,  are partly financed by
. . . the values they’re expected to provide,
. . . in reducing the utility’s need to upgrade circuits, and transformers,
. . . in hard-to-reach areas, as well as
. . . shaving system-wide demand to manage costs,
. . . imposed by grid operator ISO New England.

GMP is facing the same trends as the rest of the U.S. utility industry,
. . . flat or falling demand for energy,
. . . amidst increasing costs of managing the infrastructure to deliver it.
The utility forecasts demand will fall by up to
. . . 180 gigawatt-hours, or about
. . . 4%, over the next 10 years, representing
. . . $20 to $30 million in lost revenues.

The state’s clean energy goals also include,
. . . switching away from natural gas, and petroleum, to
. . . Locally produced Renewable Electricity for:
. . . . . . Space heating,
. . . . . . Water heating, and
. . . . . . Vehicles.

Here’s RMI’s 4-step prescription, for GMP to ramp up its uptake:
. . . . . . Segment Customers:  use existing smart meter data, into residential, and business,
. . . . . . Limited Time Offers:  Require group participation, to capture a compelling deal,
. . . . . . Audits:  Offer bundles, built on an eHome audit, or building efficiency retrofit,
. . . . . . Financing:  Test alternative financing options.

To hit the additional targets “will require tens of thousands of GMP customers to adopt:
. . . . . . Heat pumps,
. . . . . . Heat-pump water heaters, and/or
. . . . . . Electric vehicles over the next 15 years.”
About 1,500 cold-climate heat pumps have been deployed,
but, more than 30,000 may be needed by 2026 to meet Tier III targets, and
. . . 10% electrification of the passenger vehicle fleet by 2025,
. . . will take a 20X increase in the number of electric vehicles in GMP’s service territory, from
. . . 1,500 today to more than
. . . 32,000.

4-18-2018 Source:  Distributed #Energy Resources (DER)