Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is good for ratepayers. At the Office of the Consumer Advocate, we believe that ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs can and do save all utility customers money – both customers participating directly in the programs and customers not participating but receiving benefits that accrue to all, including rates that are lower than they would otherwise be overall.
In New Hampshire, ratepayer-funded energy efficiency are delivered jointly by electric and natural gas utilities (Eversource, Liberty, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, Unitil) under the NHSaves banner. Follow the link to NHSaves to explore the programs available to you – everything from home weatherization to customized improvements to industrial processes at manufacturing facilities.
We all pay for these energy efficiency programs via the energy efficiency portion of the System Benefits Charge on electric bills and the energy efficiency portion of the LDAC charge on gas bills. These charges are non-bypassable – in other words, you can’t avoid paying them by choosing a competitive energy supplier.
The pictures on this page were taken at the Oyster River Middle School in Durham, which opened in 2022. It's a "Net Zero" building, meaning it was designed to produce at least as much energy as it uses. Net Zero is a program funded as part of NHSaves.
The website of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy is a trustworthy source of information about energy efficiency generally.
