Climate Minute #5 — 100 Seconds to a Better Planet

Climate Minute #5

100 Seconds to a Better Planet

The Lincoln Green Energy Choice (LGEC) program offers residents three options for electricity from renewable (primarily wind and solar) sources:

• Basic   26% renewable  14.631 cents per kWh

• Standard Green   62% renewable  16.093 cents per kWh

• 100% Green 100% renewable  17.348 cents per kWh

When the program started three years ago, unless a household specifically selected Basic or 100% Green, it was placed in the Standard Green program by default. The great majority of those enrolled in the program ended up with Standard. With busy lives and automatic bill payments, probably few of us have given much thought to our electricity supplier since.

About 13% of Lincoln households have chosen the 100% option, while 80% have Standard and 7% Basic. The CFREE team hopes that more households would move to 100% if they knew how easy it is to do and how minimal the extra cost would be. The 100% option is just over a penny per kilowatt-hour more than Standard. For an average home that uses 10,000kWh per year, that’s about 35 cents a day. This is one of the simplest and lowest-cost steps we can take to get at least the electricity part of our fossil fuel use out of our lives.

We’ve timed it. If you can spare 100 seconds, you can do this! First, make sure you have your Eversource bill at hand. Then:

• Click here, fill out the form, and press “Submit.”

Or

• Call LGEC customer support at 1-844-651-8919 and tell them you want 100% Green. They will make the change for you.

It may take several billing cycles before the change takes effect.

If you’re uncertain which option you’re in now, click here to see where the rate and supplier information is noted on your Eversource bill. Then, find your February 2024 or later bill to compare.

Tech support will be provided free of charge in the Tarbell room of the Library on March 1st from 1 to 2 pm. CFREE volunteers will have computers set up to help anyone who’d like to make the change to 100% (or any other change), Bring your Eversource bill.

We’ll also do a Question and Answer and provide Tech support to help users make the change on March 21st from 2 to 3 pm at Bemis Hall.

Michael Moodie and Belinda Gingrich, on behalf of CFREE.

CFREE (Carbon-Free Residential, Everything Electric)

is a working group of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee.