On the hottest and coldest days of the year, demand for electricity reaches its highest points. To make this extra electricity, our dirtiest and oldest power plants turn on. This status quo costs us money, health, and safe futures. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Why do we want to shut down fossil fuel peaker plants?
MONEY: About 10-20% of our utility bills go to these plants. Less peaker plants = cheaper utility bills and more money for our communities.
POLLUTION: Most peaker plants are powered by dirty fossil fuels like oil and gas. They make climate change worse and damage the health of their neighbors.
WE DON’T NEED THEM: The people in power will tell you this is the only way to have reliable access to electricity. But we have a much better option - work together to avoid “peaks” in electricity usage entirely.
How do we avoid the peaks? Peakbusting!
Peakbusting means using as little electricity as you can during “peaks” - the hottest and coldest hours of the year. To make this easier - we’re do it together! We are doing this to make the world safer and healthier for everyone. No one is expected to turn off appliances they or their family needs!
If you sign up to do peak-busting with No Coal No Gas we will:
Tell you when the peaks are happening!
Have practice days and trainings
Connect you with a “block” or a team of people in your community!
Stay in communication to figure out how we to build power
Support each other to get everyone the resources they need
How does our collective action stop peaker plants?
New England’s remaining oil generators are all “peaker plants”- they only run when electricity demand is highest. Outside of peaks, they get millions of dollars of subsidies from our utility bills simply for existing- despite being the dirtiest plants on our grid. This is raising our electric rates and blocking a transition to renewable energy. We’ve told our grid operator ISO New England over and over again that New Englanders don’t want to keep paying for oil peakers, and that we’d rather reduce our electricity demand than ask oil peakers to turn on. But ISO-NE doesn’t believe us. They are so controlled by corporate interests and industry profiteers that they see the continued burning of fossil fuels as the only way to have enough electricity. They can’t (or won’t) see the solution that’s right in front of them, but we can.
As ratepayers, we are tired of waiting for those in power to do what’s necessary to transition our grid. So, we are organizing to take control of our own energy systems and do this work ourselves. We know that renewable energy and energy conservation can fully replace fossil fuels and lower our utility bills. Our Peakbusters project uses collective, strategically-timed electricity conservation to undermine support for fossil fuels. Starting just before electricity demand is forecasted to spike, we will support each other in reducing our energy usage, effectively shaving the “peak” so that oil plants don’t have to turn on. Then, we will use collective organizing to shift economic support away from oil and gas and towards community-led conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy projects.
Together, we can use our position as everyday ratepayers to exert the economic, political, and literal electric power needed to transform our grid, ensure equitable electricity access, and grow our community in the process.
