ITEM FILE PHOTO
Swampscott Town Planner Peter Kane.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — The town of Swampscott was one of seven communities selected by National Grid to participate in its Massachusetts 2016 Community Initiative, which encourages residents to take measures to reduce energy used in their homes.
A program called Big Blue Energy Initiative was launched by the Renewable Energy Committee (REC) in 2012. Its goal was to improve home energy efficiency in Swampscott. The town’s participation in the National Grid program will help the REC continue their Big Blue Energy efforts, according to a town release.
Financial incentives are provided to the town by National Grid, provided enough residents “implement energy saving measures such as no-cost home energy assessments, air sealing and insulation.” As part of the initiative, one goal is for Swampscott residents to complete 268 home energy assessments by the end of the year, according to town information.
Swampscott could win an award and receive more than $14,000 from National Grid if the town achieves all of the goals within the initiative. Each measure in the National Grid initiative reduces the amount of energy used in a home. The National Grid incentives are in addition to state and federal energy incentives already available to residents, according to town information.
Peter Kane, town planner and director of community development, said the town applied for the National Grid Community Initiative and was selected on Jan. 7. The official kick-off was held at the National Grid offices on Jan. 26 with the other six communities selected — Lowell, Melrose, Newton, Quincy, Somerville and Winchester.
Kane said the town had also participated in the program in 2013 and submitted another application in 2015. As part of the application, he said he had to outline the activities the town would take on to get residents to do energy efficiency work.
“Rather than National Grid doing the outreach, (it’s) using communities to do outreach and bring about the awareness,” Kane said.
Kane said a few workshops would be held throughout the year to let residents know what to expect during home energy assessments and learn about the different incentive programs. He said there would be table events held at grocery stores. Before people would go into the store, they could get information and they could schedule a home energy assessment.
In addition, Kane said there would be outreach to some of the local businesses with “brown bag info sessions at different businesses.” He is also floating the idea of putting up a thermometer board at Town Hall to show how close Swampscott is to reaching its energy efficiency goal.
Kane said energy efficiency has been an ongoing goal in Swampscott. He said as a green community, there’s a focus on energy efficiency for all town and school buildings.
“We always want to reduce energy demands (and) find alternative energy sources,” Kane said.
He said since Big Blue Energy, which is led by Kane and the REC in collaboration with local Mass Save provider, Next Step Living, was launched in 2012, the focus has shifted to residents being more energy efficient at home.
Kane said he and other town officials were “certainly pleased” with being selected by National Grid for the initiative. Now that the town can see dollars coming back with the incentive program, he said it “adds in a level of encouragement” for energy efficiency.
Residents implementing the measures identified in the National Grid Initiative could win the town an award, but would also save themselves money by reducing the amount of energy used in their homes. Next Step Living estimates if residents participated, the savings would exceed $80,000 per year, according to town information.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected].