PEABODY — The new Peabody Municipal Light Plant manager is focused on reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, while keeping the city’s rates low and its customers well-informed.
“My entire career has been in IT — working through security systems and data,” said Joe Anastasi, the Peabody Municipal Light Plant’s new manager. “I have always been trying to transform IT into a more service-oriented system.”
Creating service-oriented systems remains a priority for the new manager. Another aspect he is excited about is change.
“Coming from IT and coming from change management, I hope to know where we can create change within PMLP to increase the efficiency of internal procedures,” said Anastasi. “PMLP, as most local governments, is slow to change, and I want to change that. I want to be quicker at change.”
The biggest change Anastasi wants to see is the transition of PMLP to a carbon-free operation by 2050, which would align with the existing roadmap for the global energy sector.
“Right now, we use 47 percent of sustainable energy, which makes us far above the curve and far closer to the goal than most municipal electric utilities,” said Anastasi.
In line with PMLP’s commitment to renewable energy use, the company now plans to install electric-vehicle charging stations around the city.
“We have got three different sites around the city to install electric-vehicle charging stations,” said Anastasi. “And in addition to that, we would like to put some charging stations at PMLP itself.”
The approximate cost of one charging station is $40,000, and the first three would be paid for through a grant, he said.
“If we want to extend that in the future, we charge that back through our rates to the citizens,” said Anastasi.
Keeping low customer rates is another major goal for the plant’s new management. PMLP has not raised rates for more than a decade, and now it offers the lowest residential rate in Massachusetts.
“As always, the goal is to keep rates as low as possible,” said Anastasi.
Creating a wide public outreach is Anastasi’s third major aim.
“One of my goals here as a new manager is to extend our public outreach,” said Anastasi. “We have historically been busy doing our business, but now due to the way social media has affected our community and the world, people get more educated and more intelligent about their decisions. Customers want to be involved, so we are trying to change the way we do business to include the community.”
Involving the community for Anastasi means three things: being available for questions, explaining the reasons for the decisions taken, and keeping people aware of PMLP progress.
“I intend to have quarterly meetings starting in March,” said Anastasi. “It will be an energy awareness forum for any citizen to come and share ideas and brainstorm.”
Higher customer awareness on the products and services is what inspired another major project undertaken by Anastasi: introducing smart thermostats capable of predicting energy costs to the customers.
Three years ago, PMLP installed advanced meters that collect data every 15 minutes at residential houses in Peabody.
“We get a lot of calls from people, asking to explain why some of their bills are unexpectedly high,” said Anastasi. “With the advanced meters, we can go back and look at that 15-minute data, and we can find out exactly when the energy spiked. The customers are very excited about that, because they realize, ‘oh, that’s when my son came home from college.’”
With the advent of the new thermostats with intelligent data, customers now will have access to their minute-by-minute information, and they can even be updated on the potential energy costs that could result from temperature changes in their homes.
“If it is going to be a hot summer day, and everyone is going to put their air conditioning on at the same time, we can provide the customers with a choice not to do that, and save money if they wait a little longer,” said Anastasi. “That means to allow the customers to make their educated choices.”
Anastasi hopes to start implementing this reform by 2023. The new thermostats will be optional for the households, and their prices are subject to the retailers, but PMLP is going to give some rebates as an incentive for the customers.
An outreach-management system is one of the other changes anticipated by the new PMLP management.
“Now, at blackouts, everyone starts calling and asking when the power would be back on,” said Anastasi. “What I would like to be able to build for the customers is an online portal where you can get a half-an-hour update.
“Maybe I am biting more than I can chew, but we are trying very hard,” he said. “The energy landscape is ever changing, and we want to be on top of it.”
