Burlington Electric prepares for net-zero future - WCAX
Burlington Electric prepares for net-zero future
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Burlington is chasing a net-zero energy goal by the year 2030. It’s an ambitious effort but something Burlington Electric believes it can reach, largely because of investments going on now that will make the energy transition easier.
Warren McDermott is one of many electric vehicle commuters in Burlington. The Bridport resident needs an electric charger to give him juice for the nearly 40-mile trip home, but finding that EV plug can at times be a challenge.
“It’s gotten harder, for sure. There are more and more electric cars -- which is great -- but there is more competition for the chargers,” McDermott said.
Providing more chargers means more EVs can plug in, using more electricity. Burlington is electrifying, and as that transition happens, the city utility, the Burlington Electric Department, wants it to be seamless for residents. “Make sure that as we are growing the need for electricity that we are creating a grid that can handle that reliably,” said BED’s Darren Springer.
Since the city committed to the net-zero energy goal in 2017, Springer says electricity usage has only grown, going from a handful of EVs in the Queen City to an estimated 600. And going from under 50 electric heat pumps to over 900 today.
Burlington uses about 60 to 65 megawatts at peak times. The system’s cap is about 80 megawatts. But as the demand increases, BED is working on increasing the cap to 90mw through investments in infrastructure. “We’re investing millions of dollars in upgrading the grid to make sure we have that headroom still as demand grows,” Springer said.
Just as rural areas in northern Vermont are upgrading the grid to prevent power curtailment from major wind projects, Burlington must build new electric panels, transformers, substations, lines, and software. The money is coming from a revenue bond voters approved in 2021.
On top of those upgrades, BED is also looking at “load management” -- similar to adjusting temperatures on a heat pump a few degrees to save a few electrons or charging EVs during off-peak hours.
It’s upgrading that McDermott wouldn’t mind because he says an electrified Queen City sounds like a future he would benefit from. “It sounds awesome, it’ll make commuting a whole lot easier,” he said.
Burlington on Town Meeting Day also passed a carbon fee for buildings over 50,000 square feet that choose to continue to heat with fossil fuels after heating system upgrades are necessary. The city has about 80 of those buildings and even if all of them switched over to electricity tomorrow, BED estimates they would still not hit capacity.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”