Energy-efficiency programs in New Hampshire are in for a big change if a decision issued Nov. 12 by the Public Utilities Commission is enacted.

In that decision, the commission rejected an energy-efficiency plan to increase spending and then took it a step further, slashing funding for energy efficiency over the next two years to return to 2017 funding levels. The contentious order may face legal challenges: Consumer Advocate Don Kreis has already announced that he may ask for a rehearing, which would be the first step toward an appeal.

Proponents of energy efficiency say the order would gut the state’s programs, which operate under NHSaves and offer rebates and incentives to residents who weatherize their homes or buy energy-efficient appliances, for instance. Those rebates have already been in short supply, and the decision would further reduce availability and likely the amount offered.

Kreis said the effect on energy-efficiency programs would be devastating. “It would so ratchet them down that they would be a shadow of their former selves,” he said.

A contractor for the NHSaves program, energy auditor Eric Chabot of Turn Cycle Solutions in Nashua, said he expects energy-efficiency companies will have to lay off employees and sell equipment that was purchased when they were told to ramp up programs.

“We’re trying to crawl back into the dark ages,” he said. “I really just don’t get it.”

The order ignores more than a decade of decisions from the utilities commission, erasing a period from 2004 to 2020, Kreis said. “Thinking has evolved since the year 2000 and 1998, and the commission just ignored all that history,” he said.

The decision would lower residential electric bills by a few dollars per month. Energy efficiency is funded through what’s called the System Benefits Charge, one portion of a resident’s monthly electric bill. Right now, the charge is around $4 a month for the typical household. Under the Nov. 12 order, that would go down to around $1.80 a month by 2023. Instead of paying about $40 per year in SBC charges, a household in 2023 would pay around $20 a year. The rejected plan would have cost a household up to $70 a year.

Contractors who work with NHSaves, like Chabot, say the decision will be a big blow to business. Many have testified that months of inaction from the utilities commission has already been a big challenge because of the uncertainty it’s created.

“Two years ago, they said, ‘We’ll increase the funding so you need to buy more trucks, hire more people, have staff trained up,’ so that’s what we did,” Chabot said.

— AMANDA GOKEE/NEW HAMPSHIRE BULLETIN