Category Archives: GMP

Utility surcharges in place to help low-income customers

BURLINGTON — Vermont utility companies are wading through their first year of levying surcharges to residential and commercial consumers to help low-income consumers pay their bills.
Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems each initiated the fees this year, after the legislature and state Public Service Board mandated the surcharges.
The Burlington Free Press reports that residential customers of Green Mountain Power pay $1.50 a month and Vermont Gas customers pay $1.39 a month.
The Vermont Chapter of the AARP lobbied for the fee to help fixed-income seniors stay in their homes.
Some customers complain that the fee amounts to forced charity, but the measure has numerous advocates.
Vermont is the last New England state to enact programs to help low-income customers through fees to all customers.

BURLINGTON — Vermont utility companies are wading through their first year of levying surcharges to residential and commercial consumers to help low-income consumers pay their bills.
Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems each initiated the fees this year, after the legislature and state Public Service Board mandated the surcharges.
The Burlington Free Press reports that residential customers of Green Mountain Power pay $1.50 a month and Vermont Gas customers pay $1.39 a month.
The Vermont Chapter of the AARP lobbied for the fee to help fixed-income seniors stay in their homes.
Some customers complain that the fee amounts to forced charity, but the measure has numerous advocates.
Vermont is the last New England state to enact programs to help low-income customers through fees to all customers.

Heat pump summit today

Green Mountain Power is exploring the possibility of a heat pump pilot program in Rutland and is looking for input.
Power company officials are sitting down today with manufacturers, installers, lenders, local distributors and weatherization and efficiency experts to investigate the potential for heat pumps to warm the homes and businesses of some of their customers.
Also known as mini-split heat pumps, the devices work much like a refrigerator to move heat from one area to another, according to GMP.
Even with low temperatures outside, heat pumps can capture the heat in the air and automatically reverse the process in the summer to cool homes and businesses. The meeting will be held at the Franklin Conference Center in the Howe Center from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. today.

Proctor electricity to be cut off Saturday night

PROCTOR — Green Mountain Power will interrupt electric service to customers in the Proctor area overnight Saturday, Oct. 20, into the early morning hours of Sunday, Oct. 21, to make badly needed upgrades to the former Vermont Marble Power  system.

The work was originally scheduled for Oct. 13, but had to be rescheduled due to weather. If it must be postponed again this week, the work will be rescheduled for one week later on Oct. 27-28.

The outage is scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. Saturday and last until approximately 7 a.m. Sunday. The interruption is necessary to provide safe working conditions for Green Mountain Power crews to make system upgrades, specifically the reconstruction of the Proctor substation, which will provide more reliable power to the customers it serves.

The outage will affect most Proctor residents and a handful of customers in the town of Pittsford along Route 3 just north of Proctor.

In case of inclement weather, the outage will be postponed until Saturday, Oct. 20, at the same time.

GMP’s announces site of Energy Innovation Center

Green Mountain Power announced that it will place its Energy Innovation Center in the former Eastman building on Merchants Row.

That’s the news from a press conference just held in downtown Rutland.

In a release, GMP said:

Downtown Rutland’s largest empty and arguably most blighted property will become the home of Green Mountain Power’s new Energy Innovation Center, a place where the company can work with other energy providers and customers to develop new customer programs and choices and learn from a collaborative approach to solving today’s energy challenges.

“I am so pleased that we have secured the former Eastman’s property, which was once a cornerstone of downtown but in recent years has weighed heavily on it,” GMP President and CEO Mary Powell said. “We will create a place where customers can learn about energy, generation and the environmental impact of energy decisions, cutting-edge technologies and new customer programs. The EIC will help our customers envision a new world of energy choices. “

We’ll have a full story on this in the paper and online.