Vermont’s electric rates are rising quickly. We need a coordinated, data-driven plan to lower the delivered cost of electricity while improving reliability.
A Coordinated Affordability Review
I believe Vermont needs a coordinated electricity-affordability review. We should bring the Public Service Department, the Public Utility Commission, Efficiency Vermont, Renewable Energy Vermont, utilities, hydro operators, municipalities, and ratepayer advocates to the same table — with one mission: lower the delivered cost of electricity while improving reliability, storage, local generation, and ratepayer benefit.
Too many of these agencies and programs operate in parallel without a shared accountability standard. Ratepayers fund all of them. They deserve a coordinated strategy with measurable goals — not a collection of programs pulling in different directions.
The Goal
Reduce electric rates, reduce duplication in government, improve the distribution system, make solar and hydro work together, develop safe and economical storage, and make sure ratepayers receive the benefit.
These goals are achievable. Vermont has significant renewable resources — hydro, solar, and growing storage capacity — that should be working together to reduce costs. The question is whether we have the right coordination, the right incentives, and the right oversight to make that happen. I believe we do not yet, and that is what this review would address.
What a Top-to-Bottom Review Should Examine
- What is actually driving rates — supply costs, transmission, distribution upgrades, policy mandates, net-metering costs, efficiency charges, storm hardening, rate-case expenses, and administrative overhead.
- Whether agencies are duplicating work — review programs, contracts, planning mandates, and reporting requirements to find overlap and areas that could be consolidated.
- How solar helps ratepayers, not just project owners — how do we store distributed solar energy and return the value to ratepayers?
- Battery storage and hydro coordination — utility-scale and community batteries, pumped storage, existing hydro, and using storage to cut peak demand and transmission costs.
- Efficiency Vermont’s future role — whether programs measurably reduce total electric costs, and whether more effort should shift toward peak reduction, storage, and direct ratepayer savings.
- Net metering and renewable compensation — preserve fairness for existing customers while making sure non-solar ratepayers are not carrying hidden costs.