By STEVEN JUPITER
MONTPELIER—Green Mountain Power (GMP), Vermont’s main utility company, submitted a proposal to state regulators on Monday to buy large storage batteries, bury some power lines, and reinforce overhead cables. The plan makes clear that GMP sees a troubled future for home delivery of electricity, with rising costs of production, heightened risks of weather catastrophes, and increased residential demand because of growing reliance on electric cars and heat pumps.
According to the proposal, GMP would purchase and install batteries in customers’ homes in order to store electricity that could be used when demand surges, as during a heat wave, or when power is unavailable from GMP itself, as during a power outage. By GMP’s calculations, it would be less expensive to provide storage batteries, which would be owned by the utility but installed directly in customers’ homes, than to continue to repair and enlarge its infrastructure and delivery network.
Since 2015, GMP has maintained a program through which customers can lease Tesla storage batteries for their homes. The current proposal will allow customers to continue leasing batteries if they choose but aims to install batteries in all customers’ homes by 2030. GMP estimates that it will need to invest $1.5 billion over the next seven years in order to implement the program. GMP also suggested that the cost would be passed through to consumers, though it is not clear at this time the extent to which customers’ rate will be increased.
The program would begin in areas where GMP sees its infrastructure as particularly susceptible to weather events. The company would also begin burying power lines and strengthening overhead cables to prevent outages due to falling trees.
The extreme cost of new infrastructure is making utility companies rethink their approach, which has historically relied exclusively on cables and power lines to deliver electricity to customers. Now that this model is becoming cost-prohibitive, alternative approaches are necessary to avoid rate increases that could put basic services beyond the reach of many.
New England is already one of the most expensive energy markets in the U.S., exceeded only by Hawaii and California. Vermont’s rates are the lowest among the New England states but are still significantly above the national average. Increasingly violent weather, as Vermont saw this past summer, will only worsen the situation for consumers, as utilities pay to rebuild damaged networks after storms. GMP said that it has spent approximately $55 million on storm recovery so far in 2023, more than five times more than in any year between 2015 and 2022. These costs are ultimately borne by consumers.
In an interview with the New York Times, Mari McClure, President and CEO of GMP, said, “If you are leading a utility anywhere in the country you have to get on a path to stop the madness, relative to rates.”
That path, at least for GMP, will involve storing electricity when it’s available for times when it is not.
