Member Interview with Mari McClure, Green Mountain Power president and CEO

Why is sustainability important to your business?

Green Mountain Power provides Vermont with electricity that is 100% carbon free and 78% renewable. We’re here to serve our customers, and we know Vermonters want clean, cost-effective, reliable power – so sustainability is at the core of our work. We are committed to delivering power that’s 100% renewable by 2030, and in the meantime, to speeding up grid transformation and clean electrification across our state to fight climate change. Like many parts of the U.S., our service area is rural, which presents certain challenges and opportunities for innovation as we focus on sustainability, equity, and   resilience.

How do you realize your vision for sustainability/what successes can you point to?

Helping Vermonters switch from fossil fuel to clean electricity for driving and heating is critical to go after the major sources of carbon emissions, and to do this, electricity has to continue to be an affordable option for customers. We do this cost-effectively through innovation. Our industry-leading programs deploy batteries – both in customers’ homes and utility scale batteries – to make the grid more resilient, and that helps to reduce costs and carbon emissions for customers at the same time. Battery programs are saving our customers about $3 million per year, and last year, GMP helped customers offset 210,845 metric tons of carbon with programs from heat pump and EV rebates to custom business initiatives for heating, cooling, and energy storage. That’s the equivalent of taking about 45,000 fossil fueled cars off the road.

What public policy priorities are of great importance to you at this time and why?

The IRA is an exciting package of incentives on the federal level that will help spur the green economy and help customers make the switch from fossil fuel to cleaner lower cost options. Our work to strengthen the grid is an important piece of that and deploying more energy storage will be key. Our customers are benefitting right now in multiple ways from batteries. We’re speeding up this work – doubling our energy storage capacity within the next two years and expanding our Resiliency Zone projects in rural communities across the state. Storage is at the heart of these projects that will help keep the lights on and Vermonters connected even when severe weather hits, even in forested and mountainous areas. It is critical to accelerate this work to benefit all Vermont communities and to ensure this energy transition is equitable.

How does being part of ASBN help you to fulfill your goals?

It’s a wonderful community with shared goals that ultimately help solve the top challenges we’re all facing. For us, keeping Vermonters powered up, while we see more and more severe weather due to climate change is a major opportunity for progress. Innovation and determination – and great partners like ASBN all make a difference.