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SmartPower’s Patrice Gillespie
Veteran Community Leader Joins Groundbreaking Efforts to Boost Adoption of Solar+Storage
— Brian F. Keane, President SmartPower
HARTFORD , CONNECTICUT, USA, March 20, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — SmartPower, the nation’s leading non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting clean energy and energy efficiency, today announced the hiring of Patrice Gillespie as its newest “Community Outreach Manager” as part of the organization’s “PowerSmart Campaign.”
A native of Wilton, Connecticut, Gillespie brings years of community outreach activism and experience to the role. She is a founding member of Wilton Go Green, Inc., and has undertaken similar Community Outreach roles with organizations such as Sierra Club CT, ICF International, 3Degrees and Clean Water Action. She’s also a former Wilton Energy Commissioner. In her role at SmartPower she will be working with SmartPower Vice President Bob Wall.
“The tagline for our PowerSmart campaign is ‘Battery Storage Saves the Day,” said Brian F. Keane, President of SmartPower. “But it just as easily could be ‘Patrice Gillespie Saves the Day!’ With her passion, dedication and familiarity with so many of CT’s local energy task forces and sustainability teams, Patrice brings the energy and expertise that will make our new PowerSmart campaign a huge success and a model for the nation.”
PowerSmart is a unique community outreach campaign designed to present Connecticut homeowners with various incentives and choices that can help them co-adopt solar PV and energy storage.
Specifically, PowerSmart will educate and engage Connecticut residents on whether to purchase a battery storage system outright or to participate in either of two exciting Solar+Storage programs:
• The Energy Storage Solutions program, administered by CT Green Bank, Eversource, and UI, offers residents the opportunity to receive a generous upfront rebate incentive for agreeing to have some of their batteries’ stored energy drawn into the grid during hot summer afternoons and a handful of days during the winter months. Customers will get a payment each year based on the amount of electricity that is drawn from their batteries.
• The Eversource ConnectedSolutions Demand Response program is similar to The Energy Storage Solutions Program in that homeowners agree to allow a draw from their batteies during peak days during the summer months; customers will get a payment each year based on the amount of electricity that is drawn from their batteries. With Connected Solutions, however, there is no upfront rebate incentive.
PowerSmart Campaigns will deploy in 28 cities and towns in Connecticut, and present residents with the choices they can make. Residents will weigh their own preferences as to whether the upfront rebate is worth allowing their batteries to be tapped more often. There’s an understanding that a draw from each participant’s battery will help keep the grid green while reducing fossil-fuel use during peak times. Both programs have safeguards in place so that drawdowns are suspended in the event of a potential power outage. Alternatively, participants can elect to forego the state incentives, but keep and use all of the power stored for their own purposes. All of the options allow customers to receive a federal tax credit.
“I am so excited to join SmartPower and this campaign,” said Gillespie. “The Solarize/PowerSmart team includes energy experts from the Stern School of Business at NYU and the Yale School of Environment, so I have no doubt that working together — and with our community leaders and partners — we will help ‘save the day!’”
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Brian F Keane
SmartPower
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