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What is net metering worth in New Hampshire? – New Hampshire Bulletin

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What is net metering worth in New Hampshire? – New Hampshire Bulletin


Web metering is one in every of New Hampshire’s few insurance policies encouraging extra renewable vitality by paying owners and companies who generate it. Now, the state is trying to change the speed of these funds.

A examine that’s anticipated to tell the brand new charges was introduced to stakeholders Wednesday, together with findings in regards to the worth of this vitality and the way paying mills for it impacts shoppers’ payments. Whereas the examine doesn’t account for the latest and dramatic upswing in vitality costs, it gives for the primary time New Hampshire-specific info on whether or not internet metering shifts prices from those that use it to those that don’t.

Some vitality specialists say the examine, performed by Montreal-based consulting agency Dunsky Power + Local weather Advisors, is proof that paying for small-scale renewable vitality like photo voltaic and hydro advantages all ratepayers.

Producing vitality close to the place it’s used saves cash by reducing the price of transferring vitality throughout main, high-voltage transmission traces that cross states. It reduces how a lot vitality utilities have to purchase from energy crops, and it additionally decreases how a lot utilities must pay crops to be on name to satisfy demand even when they don’t seem to be producing vitality. 

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The examine was tasked with determining how a lot cash this type of vitality – referred to as distributed era (suppose rooftop photo voltaic or small-scale hydro) – saves and calculating how crediting mills by means of internet metering impacts individuals’s payments. The primary is critical as a result of the Public Utilities Fee has opened a docket to set new charges for internet metering, with a pre-hearing convention scheduled for Jan. 5.

The latter is critical in gentle of an ongoing debate within the state about whether or not internet metering shifts prices from clients who internet meter onto those that don’t – or the haves and the have-nots, as Shopper Advocate Don Kreis put it.

“I believe there’s a powerful argument to be made primarily based on the findings that Dunsky has already launched that in actual fact there’s little or no in the best way of price shifting,” he mentioned. “So little in actual fact that it is perhaps deemed to be an affordable quantity of price shifting such that we needs to be encouraging internet metering reasonably than discouraging it.”

However that query is prone to stay controversial, mentioned Kreis, who famous that the Division of Power equivocated when requested whether or not the report confirms that there is no such thing as a vital price shifting on account of internet metering in New Hampshire.

“I believe we should always let the Dunsky report converse for itself,” mentioned Dave Weisner, authorized director for the Division of Power throughout the presentation.

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The examine discovered that payments would go up by 1 to 1.5 % for residential clients who don’t internet meter. Business clients who don’t internet meter would see a rise of .3 to 2.6 %, in keeping with the examine. Everybody who internet meters would see a big lower, bringing payments down on common.

“For all these instances I’ve mentioned, ‘There isn’t any proof of any vital price shift,’ now I can lastly say there’s proof that there is no such thing as a vital price shift,” tweeted Madeleine Mineau, chief working officer at Essex Hydro in Boscawen. “Contemplating we’re taking a look at 160% invoice will increase for vitality proper now, I’m going to say 1% just isn’t vital.”

Photo voltaic builders agreed.

“What we’ve constantly discovered and what I believe this examine helps is that including extra photo voltaic to the grid doesn’t solely profit the individuals who personal photo voltaic panels on their roof, nevertheless it additionally advantages the general public at massive,” mentioned Dan Weeks, vice chairman of enterprise improvement for ReVision Power, which operates in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts.

The examine appeared on the worth of photo voltaic and hydro over a 15-year interval, beginning in 2021 and ending in 2035. It discovered that the typical worth of a kilowatt hour of photo voltaic added to the grid in 2021 was 16 or 17 cents, relying if the photo voltaic was south dealing with or west dealing with. That worth elevated to 21 or 22 cents when environmental advantages of lowered air air pollution and improved public well being are included.  

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Precise common funds to internet metering clients throughout that very same time interval was 12.6 cents, in keeping with Weeks. 

South-facing photo voltaic generates extra vitality general however west-facing photo voltaic produces vitality when demand for vitality is excessive, in hours of the afternoon and early night, when persons are coming house from work. 

Some vitality specialists imagine that worth needs to be mirrored in charges. “That’s the coverage hole,” mentioned Henry Herndon, an vitality guide who mentioned the examine’s findings help larger funds for vitality that produces at a time of upper want. 

For Weeks, the examine helps larger internet metering funds. The worth of photo voltaic is 40 % larger than the funds New Hampshire photo voltaic clients obtained in 2021 below New Hampshire’s internet metering legislation, in keeping with Weeks. And that doesn’t account for the spike in electrical utility charges in 2022 – some extent raised repeatedly throughout Dunsky’s presentation. 

That was not a conclusion reached by all. Kreis interpreted the examine outcomes to imply that present internet metering tariffs are a comparatively shut reflection of its worth. “So I believe that means that the PUC received it nearly proper when it adopted a brief internet metering price 5 years in the past,” he mentioned.   

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The complete examine outcomes usually are not but out there, and the examine may additionally include flaws, Kreis warned. “That is all very preliminary evaluation and dialogue,” he mentioned.

One disappointment for Kreis and others on the presentation was that the outcomes don’t bear in mind the latest and dramatic enhance in the price of vitality. Electrical payments went up 50 % for Eversource and Liberty clients in August, and Unitil just lately requested charges that might elevate shoppers’ payments by round 75 %. 

“The factor is that we’re nonetheless in a window of rising prices,” mentioned Robert Hayden, president of Commonplace Energy. “It’s the primary time ever actually in my enterprise profession, and by my statement, the place renewables are a lot lower than the price of the normal third-party provide market.”

Dunsky is scheduled to submit the ultimate report and a modeling instrument to the Division of Power by the top of October.

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire woman relieved to get refund for postponed Aerosmith concert

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New Hampshire woman relieved to get refund for postponed Aerosmith concert


SEABROOK, NH – Phyllis Willett lives for legendary live music. And what is more iconically New England, than a farewell tour of its most famous band?

“I’ve seen Aerosmith before; I even saw Steven Tyler at Market Basket in Portsmouth. But to see them in concert on New Year’s Eve; Rent a room down there, it would have been a great celebration!” the Seabrook woman said.

Aerosmith tour postponed   

But after Steven Tyler announced a vocal cord injury last September, the tour was postponed – with the Boston show bumped a year.

“I was going to go with my twin brother. My twin brother passed away unexpectedly January 8. That’s a no-go. Now I don’t even want to go,” she explained.

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Phyllis had spent close to $1800 for the two Ticketmaster tickets, on a resale site with different rules: no refunds on postponed or rescheduled shows. She was told she’d have to resell them herself, but she doesn’t even own a computer.

Phyllis Willett

CBS Boston


“Unlike buying through an official channel, third party sites may have weaker refund and buyer protection policies. In this situation specifically no one is wrong. It’s a set of circumstances that no one could foresee,” said Paula Fleming of the Better Business Bureau. 

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Full refund from third party website

WBZ contacted Ticketmaster, and Tickets-Center.com where the purchase occurred. After explaining the sensitive situation, Tickets-Center.com responded:

“In addition to the full refund, we would like Phyllis to keep the tickets. We want her to consider attending the concert as a tribute to her twin brother’s memory, a celebration of the bond she shared, and a step towards healing.”

Now after months of worry, countless calls and e-mails, and a trip to her credit union, Phyllis finally feels relief.

“Me not knowing there was a third party involved just made it even tougher on me. I’m just grateful I met you and WBZ did something for me,” Phyllis said happily. 

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New Hampshire

Ex-youth center resident testifies that counselor went from trusted father figure to horrific abuser

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Ex-youth center resident testifies that counselor went from trusted father figure to horrific abuser


BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — The man who blew the lid off decades of abuse allegations at New Hampshire’s youth detention center continued testifying at his civil trial Thursday, describing being treated for gonorrhea after being raped at age 15.

But the real turning point, he said, was the first of many assaults by a man he had grown to love as father figure.

In the seven years since David Meehan went to police, the state has set up a $100 million fund for former residents of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester and brought criminal charges against 11 former state workers, including four accused of abusing Meehan.

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But facing more than 1,100 lawsuits from former residents, the state also argues it should not be held liable for the actions of what it calls “rogue” employees.

That unusual dynamic began playing out as Meehan’s lawsuit –- the first to be filed — went to trial last week. On the witness stand for a second day Thursday, Meehan acknowledged lying on intake paperwork about having sexual experience before arriving at the facility in 1995 at age 14.

“Do you ever really just need to feel tough in any way that you can?” he asked jurors. “It was just another form of protection for my own survival.”

In reality, his first sexual experience came when a youth center staffer violently raped him under the guise of performing a strip search, he said. He later was quarantined in the infirmary for gonorrhea, he said.

“You lost your virginity to Frank Davis?” asked attorney Rus Rilee, referring to a former staffer who has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges.

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“I’m not going to accept that in my life anymore, so no,” Meehan said. “I was raped as a little boy by somebody who should not have been in a position to have been allowed to do that.”

Over the following months, Meehan said his assigned youth counselor, Jeffrey Buskey, began grooming him, giving him soda and snacks and arranging for him to play basketball with a local high school team.

“At that point, I have a father figure. I have a man in my life I felt a relationship with,” said Meehan, wiping away tears after his lawyer asked him if Buskey, who also has pleaded not guilty, treated him like a son.

“How I imagined I could be treated, yeah,” he said. “Better than my own dad.”

But that changed in the fall of 1997, when Buskey forced him to call his girlfriend and break up with her and then forced him to perform a sexual act, Meehan said.

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“I am angry sitting here trying to talk about it and trying to control these emotions,” he said. “But that’s when it starts, OK? That’s when it starts.”

Within days, other staffers also began abusing him, said Meehan, whose lawsuit alleges he was raped hundreds of times over three years. He said Buskey told him he was “his,” but if others wanted something, he should go along.

“It went from being somebody I trusted, that I thought was not just there to help me, but somebody I thought cared for me, to hurt,” he said.

The youth center, which once housed upward of 100 children but now typically serves fewer than a dozen, is named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of current Gov. Chris Sununu. In recent years, lawmakers have approved closing the facility and replacing it with a much smaller building in a new location.

The trial ended early for the day after Meehan broke down describing an incident in which he said Buskey forced a girl to perform a sex act to “teach” Meehan what to do.

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“This is the only the beginning, and I’m doing everything I can right now to try to hold myself together because I know where this is going. I don’t want to keep having to say it out loud,” said Meehan, adding that he often struggles to feel safe.

“I’m forced to try to hold myself together somehow and show as a man everything these people did to this little boy,” he said. “I’m constantly paying for what they did.”

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.



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New Hampshire

Did You Know New Hampshire State Trooper License Plates Aren't Just Random Numbers?

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Did You Know New Hampshire State Trooper License Plates Aren't Just Random Numbers?


Let’s face it.  New Hampshire State Troopers have a tough job and Granite-staters appreciate all they do to keep our roads safe.

When you look at the calendar worthy state police cruisers, you might notice not all the license plates are the same numbers.  In fact, these 2 and 3 digit numbers are quite a wide range.  Is this random or does it have meaning?

Read More: NH State Police Cruiser One of Best Looking in USA

This is a fun fact you can pull out at your next party, because there is a method to the plate numbers.

The plates are codes by series numbers.  The New Hampshire State Police recently posted what each number is based on, and for hundreds and hundred of people, it was an eye opener.

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New Hampshire State Police via Facebook

New Hampshire State Police via Facebook

The comments were as interesting as the information from the post. Here’s how the plate numbers are assigned.

Troop A (Epping) – 100 series
Troop B (Bedford) – 200 series
Troop C (Keene) – 300 series
Troop D (Concord) – 400 series
Troop E (Tamworth) – 500 series
Troop F (Twin Mountain) – 600 series
Troop G (Commercial Motor Vehicle – Statewide) – 700 series

If you are wondering about the 800 Series plates, those are reserved for new troopers in their first year.  Once they get through the probationary period they move to a plate from their troop.

The 900 Series places are reserved for SIU Detectives (Special Investigations Unit), and sometimes you can see 2 digit plate numbers on the cruisers.  Those are for the upper level troopers at Headquarters, like Colonel, Major, Captain, etc., according to the post comments, below.

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You learn something new every day, so if you didn’t know this bit of info, well, now you do.  Thank you NHSP for all you do.

15 New Hampshire Phrases Out of Towners Don’t Understand

In New Hampshire we have some words and phrases that have made many a tourist raise their eyebrows. It’s just a little reminder that they are more than welcome to visit our beautiful state but they will never be ONE OF US. muahahaha

Gallery Credit: Kira Lew

Here’s Where to Find the Best Bagels in New Hampshire

Gallery Credit: Ginny Rogers





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