Southbury To Launch Powersmart Campaign Next Month

Press release via Sustainable Southbury

SOUTHBURY, CT — Sustainable Southbury, a non-profit sustainability organization, is partnering with SmartPower, the nation’s leading non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting clean energy and energy efficiency to conduct a PowerSmart campaign which will launched on December 7th, at 6:30-7:30 pm. The event will be offered live at the town library, 100 Poverty Road, in the Kingsley Room, and virtually via Zoom.

To attend the library event, please register at https://www.southburylibrary.o... or those attending via Zoom can register at https://www.southburylibrary.o...

PowerSmart Southbury is a special 20-week community outreach campaign that is funded by a grant from the US Department of Energy. The team includes the Yale School of the Environment, New York University Stern School of Business, SmartPower, and Sustainable Southbury. The program will present residents with opportunities and incentives to own solar and battery energy storage systems, which convert sunlight into electrical energy and store that energy in a battery for use at a later time. The Solar+Storage combination helps residents be more self-sufficient and control their energy use. They can sell their excess stored energy to the grid and help make the grid more resilient during critical “peak demand” periods.

“Southbury has been helping residents to make smart energy choices,” said Sustainable Southbury founder and president Chuck Litty. “Now we’re pleased to help accelerate the transition to solar plus energy storage in our homes. This combination helps to provide greater energy independence and autonomy.”

Southbury is among the first communities to launch a PowerSmart campaign in Connecticut. The PowerSmart Campaign is one component of a community energy campaign that includes energy conservation measures such as weatherization, heat pumps, and solarization. Sustainable Southbury is leading efforts to make the town even more sustainable and has helped the town achieve a Bronze-level Sustainability certification. The organization hosts the Southbury Energy Fair & Green Expos and works across 12 categories of sustainability. Major initiatives include business and residential waste reduction and food scrap recycling programs, and single-use plastic reduction campaigns.

Three different incentives make battery storage systems an attractive investment opportunity. First, participants who enroll in the Energy Storage Solutions program can get a generous upfront rebate incentive. (Residents who live in areas that are prone to power outages may qualify for additional “Grid Edge” incentives.) Second, they get a 30% federal income tax credit, per the Inflation Reduction Act, for the cost of the solar panels and battery system that they have installed. Finally, they can get payments from Eversource for agreeing to have their batteries partially drawn down during the summer months and for a handful of days during the winter. Eversource has safeguards in place to suspend draw-downs in the event of a potential grid power outage. Homeowners can choose not to participate in this payment program. By doing so, they would forego the state incentives but would be free to use their stored power however they see fit.

Learn more by going to https://powersmartsouthbury.wee.green, or at www.sustainablesouthbury.org/c...

“There’s no doubt that battery storage ‘saves the day’ – both literally and figuratively,” concluded SmartPower president Brian F. Keane. “But it also gives residents more control over the power they generate. So let’s get PowerSmart!”