Cut Carbon: NSTAR Green

NSTAR is your electric company. "NSTAR Green" is a new NSTAR program and if you sign up, your home electricity will come from a wind farm, which produces no CO2, rather than from power plants, which produce CO2 from burning gas/coal/oil. ~25% of the CO2 that an average household is responsible for comes from the fossil fuels burned to make electricity. NSTAR Green eliminates these, which is a reduction of ~10,000 lbs/year. This is by far the single simplest, most cost-effective way to reduce a significant percentage of your household CO2 output. An average household will pay an extra ~$7/month on an average electric bill of ~$100/month. CCAB can vouch for the validity of NSTAR Green, which is described in detail below.

Signing up for NSTAR Green

• On-line: www.nstaronline.com/residential/
  Needed: NSTAR account number/name
• Phone: 800-592-2000 (8:30-5pm, M-F) Persist until you get an operator
  Needed: NSTAR account, billing address, phone
• Flyer: A flyer is also available
  Needed: name on NSTAR account, billing address, phone

In July 2009, CCAB began conducting a door-to-door effort that includes approaching residents about signing up for NSTAR Green.

The charts below show the number of NSTAR customers in Brookline who have signed up for the NSTAR Green program. The chart on the left is updated monthly by NSTAR (view online). The arrow in the chart on the right indicates the date CCAB started to promote NSTAR Green in Brookline.

NSTAR Green (THE DETAILS)

NSTAR Green: NSTAR Green is an independent program for NSTAR’s electricity customers who want to voluntarily lower their CO2 output by purchasing electricity from a wind farm. Currently ~0.8% of NSTAR 987,000 residential customers are enrolled in NSTAR Green, and they receive ~0.5% of NSTAR’s Basic Service electricity load.

Massachsetts’ Mandated Green Electricity (RPS): Beginning in 2003, the Massachusetts legislature dictated that NSTAR must purchase electricity from renewable sources, which is referred to as a “Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard” (RPS). NSTAR’s RPS obligation is 4% for 2009 and will increase at 1% per year until 2020. NSTAR’s total electricity load is ~22 TW (terawatts, which is 10 12 watts) per year, though the 4% figure is applied only to NSTAR’s Basic Service load (~10.5 TWh/yr).

NSTAR Green and RPS are independent: NSTAR’s RPS obligation is completely separate from its NSTAR Green obligation, and, thus, for 2009, NSTAR must purchase the sum of what is required for each of these programs; i.e. ~4.5% of NSTAR’s Basic Service load must come from renewable sources that do not generate CO2. This is ~4.5% less electricity that NSTAR purchases from other sources, most of which burn fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal) and produce CO2 to generate electricity.

Auditing NSTAR Green: NSTAR’s renewable electricity obligation is audited by the independent third-party organization, Green-e Energy, which was established by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions to set minimum standards for green electricity and to verify that utilities are purchasing the proper amount of “Renewable Energy Credits” (RECs) and are not double counting RECs for voluntary green energy sales (like NSTAR Green) and RPS compliance. One REC is equal to 1 MWh of electricity. The average home uses ~5-10MW (~5-10 RECs) per year. In past years, NSTAR has hit its total renewable electricity obligation precisely, though often partially by submitting alternative compliance payments to the Massachusetts renewable energy trust, rather than by directly purchasing enough RECs.

RECs are sold by electricity producers and bought by electricity suppliers as if electricity were a commodity. When NSTAR buys one REC from a renewable producer of electricity, that producer is obliged to put one REC of electricity into the United States’ massive electrical grid, from which customers receive their household electricity.

NSTAR’s Wind Farm Contracts: In consultation with the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Conservation Law Foundation and Environment Massachusetts, NSTAR signed two longterm contracts with renewable electricity facilities to meet both their RPS obligation and their green energy sales. The contracts are with wind farms in Maple Ridge NY and Kibbey Mountain ME. (The latter came on-line in October 2009.) These contracts in total provide a maximum output of 60MWh per hour of electricity, with the average output being ~30% of maximum or ~0.16 TW/yr. This is enough for ~30,000 households and represents ~1.5% of NSTAR’s Basic Service load. Since NSTAR Green customers are only drawing ~0.5% of NSTAR’s Basic Service load, NSTAR applies the rest of the output from these wind contracts (~1%) to its RPS mandate, which is then supplemented to 4% by purchases from other sources.