Healey-Driscoll Office of Energy Transformation Announces Advisory Board and Focus on Peaker Plants, Everett LNG Terminal, and Affordability

 Healey-Driscoll Office of Energy Transformation Announces Advisory Board and Focus on Peaker Plants, Everett LNG Terminal, and Affordability   

The Energy Transformation Advisory Board will include utilities, fossil fuel workers, business groups, technology providers and innovators, and environmental justice advocates, among others, and will provide advice and guidance to the Office of Energy Transformation as it focuses on affordability, decarbonizing the peak, and transitioning away from the Everett LNG Terminal  

BOSTON – The Healey-Driscoll Administration today announced the formation of the Energy Transformation Advisory Board to advise and guide the state in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. The Advisory Board will include a broad range of stakeholders, including labor, business, finance, environmental justice advocates, utilities, technology providers, building owners, developers, and generators, among others. This group will advise the newly established Office of Energy Transformation (OET), which is charged with affordably, equitably, and responsibly accelerating the gas-to-electric transition and readying the electric grid to meet the state’s climate and clean energy mandates. OET also announced today its first three priority focus areas: transitioning away from the Everett Marine Terminal liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, decarbonizing how we meet peak electric demand, and establishing alternative mechanisms to finance the clean energy transition.  

“The clean energy future will not happen if we operate in silos,” said Governor Maura Healey. “The Office of Energy Transformation and this newly-created Advisory Board is an invitation to everyone impacted to come to the table, bring solutions, and make real commitments to move us forward. This is an opportunity for coordination between our utilities, for targeted workforce development for our gas workers, and for climate and environmental justice advocates to ensure we’re moving swiftly and equitably. These are challenging issues, but I’m confident that Massachusetts can continue our climate leadership as a team.”  

“With the establishment of the Energy Transformation Advisory Board, we can ensure that our gas workers and impacted businesses have a seat at the table in the clean energy transition,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “This transition is bigger than flipping a switch – it’s thousands of workers and businesses that rely on fossil fuels for their livelihood. By coming together, aligning on solutions, and investing in workforce development and climatetech, we can ensure that workers and their families will have good-paying careers in our clean energy future.”    

To ensure compliance with the legal mandates and policies in the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Clean Energy and Climate Plans, and the Department of Public Utilities’ (DPU) Order 20-80, Massachusetts must achieve a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. The primary mechanism to accomplish this task will be the electrification of buildings and transportation to be powered by new clean energy sources. OET’s mission is to ensure that the electric grid is affordably enhanced, that the state is making steady progress toward moving away from fossil fuels, and that the workers and businesses dependent on fossil fuels for their livelihood are supported in the transition. The Advisory Board will serve as an opportunity for the Healey-Driscoll Administration to hear directly from climate solution providers and impacted stakeholders and create the venue for them to work together to advance the clean energy transition.  

“DPU’s Order 20-80 set the stage for the transition from gas to electricity, making Massachusetts the first state in the country to require its utilities to prioritize electrification. Now it’s time to execute on that vision,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. “We launched the Office of Energy Transformation and Advisory Board to take on this big challenge. We’re grateful that so many stakeholders are rising to meet it. The three focus areas outlined today are tangible next steps in ending our reliance on some of the most costly and dirty fossil fuel infrastructure, and ensuring that our ratepayers and environmental justice communities are kept at the heart of this transition.”  

“No single sector, entity, or organization can transform an energy ecosystem that took more than 100 years to build,” said OET Executive Director Melissa Lavinson. “But, together, with the guidance of the Advisory Board and focus of the Office of Energy Transformation, we can find a better way that works for all communities across Massachusetts. We’re going to get to work to advance our competitiveness, ensure a just transition for workers and businesses, create new opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators, and continue our proud position as a climate leader and model for others.”  

Priority Areas  

OET has established three focus areas for its work aligned with its mission and that will result in tangible, demonstrable and transformative change. Members of the Advisory Board will advise on the priority focus areas and provide strategic guidance to OET as it conducts its work in collaboration with stakeholders from across the energy ecosystem.  

 

·          Transitioning Away from Reliance on the Everett Marine Terminal LNG Facility. The Everett Marine Terminal imports LNG and supports Massachusetts and the New England region by helping to meet energy needs on the coldest of days or if there is a disruption elsewhere in the system. It is one of the longest operating LNG facilities in the United States. The state’s three largest gas utilities executed contracts to maintain the use of the facility until 2030. In its order approving the contracts, the DPU required that the utilities establish plans to move beyond reliance on fossil fuel infrastructure and natural gas, including the Everett Marine Terminal LNG facility, and expeditiously toward electrification and other alternatives, like geothermal. This work group will convene stakeholders to develop a coordinated strategy to reduce and ultimately eliminate the local gas distribution companies’ reliance on Everett Marine Terminal LNG facility, aligned with DPU Order 20-80-2 and the state’s climate and clean energy mandates, including those established in the Global Warming Solutions Act. 

  

·          Decarbonizing the Peak. Peaking power plants are facilities that generally run only when there is a high demand for electricity. There are dozens of fossil fuel-fired power plants in Massachusetts, the majority of which are peaking power plants or combined heat and power (CHP) facilities, with many located in or near environmental justice communities. As Massachusetts transitions to an electrified energy system powered by renewables, there is a potential for the state to become more reliant, not less, on these assets. This work group will identify and demonstrate pathways to reduce reliance on and expeditiously eliminate fossil fuels from peaking power plant and CHP facilities, both via alternative demand and supply side options. 

  

·          Establishing Alternative Mechanisms to Finance the Transition. This work group will identify alternative mechanisms for financing electricity distribution system infrastructure upgrades necessary to achieve Massachusetts’ clean energy and climate mandates that reduce the cost of the energy transition for ratepayers and minimizes bill impacts, while providing the revenue necessary to make the infrastructure investments required to support the energy transition and meet our climate and clean energy mandates.  

Energy Transformation Advisory Board  

The Advisory Board will provide guidance and recommendations to the OET on strategic direction and areas of focus to execute the energy transition, including in the areas of gas-to-electric transition, electric grid readiness, and the just transition for workers, business and communities. The Advisory Board will be comprised of senior leaders and decisionmakers from across the energy ecosystem, representing labor, industry, technology, supply chain, environmental justice communities, consumers, policymakers and elected officials, housing and real estate developers, energy suppliers and providers, investors, and financial institutions, among others. 

 

The Advisory Board will meet in person on a quarterly basis, with meetings open to the public. It will also hold one public comment session each year. Additionally, the OET will hold four additional meetings around Massachusetts to receive public input and share this feedback with the Advisory Board as a whole at its quarterly meetings.