When the app on Erik Yunghans’ phone showed power going from his home in Moretown, Vermont onto the grid, he smiled. His Tesla Powerwall had just been installed days before as part of Green Mountain Power’s Resilient Home program, and the energy flow showed it was working like a charm.

“It was awesome! I took a screenshot and showed family out of state,” he said. “They’re now writing to their utility (in New Jersey), asking ‘why can’t you be like GMP?’”

The Vermont power company’s Resilient Home program offers customers in this rural, wooded state great reliability during storms – the Powerwall batteries start seamlessly and can power the whole home for up to 24 hours. Erik Yunghans’ app showed his batteries sending energy to the grid because GMP also networks the stored energy in customers’ homes to reduce demand during peaks, which cuts costs for all customers. Beyond the customer benefit and grid value to all customers, GMP’s program announcement made a splash this spring, because it is a breakthrough in the utility world – GMP is using batteries as the meter for the home to track power usage.

“Our vision is a battery in every home. Our groundbreaking approach is making meters obsolete,” Mary Powell, GMP’s president and CEO, said with a smile. She’s not surprised customers love it. “The battery replaces the meter with accurate energy measurement and fantastic resiliency. Think about what that means for storm restoration, for making both the home and the grid more resilient, and cleaner. Your lights stay on. You’re comfortable while we work to get the poles and wires repaired. And, that stored energy you’re using is clean – our supply is 90 percent carbon-free and 60 percent renewable.”

Innovating, thinking ahead and looking around the corner to benefit customers is something Powell has become known for in the utility world. On a national scale, GMP is a relatively small utility – it has 265,000 customers serving 75 percent of Vermont, but the company has a track record of big, bold decisions. GMP was the first utility to partner with Tesla on home battery storage with Powerwalls, the first utility to earn B Corp certification with its rigorous social and environmental accountability standards, and it is one of the first utilities to commit to being 100 percent carbon-free by 2025 and 100 percent renewable by 2030.
 

Louisa Wilson and Erik Yunghans with their children Evelyn and Anders at home in Moretown, VT.
 

That accelerated push to reach 100 percent renewable made national headlines, and Powell says doing it in a cost-effective way for customers is both critical and achievable. “We must do this”, says Powell. “Making sure we’re providing great, affordable service for all of the customers we serve is at the heart of every decision we make. And being 100 percent renewable is no different. The science is clear – we are running out of time to make a difference to stop irreversible climate change. We can do this.”

When Powell says, “We can do this,” she’s speaking from experience. You don’t turn a small, traditional power company into an innovative dynamo without knowing how to get things done. Powell’s been CEO at GMP since 2008, but she started there a decade before that – leading human resources and workplace development after years in banking and finance in both Vermont and New York City. At GMP, she launched a transformation of company culture, to break down rigid corporate barriers to problem-solving. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best laid plans will get bogged down and destroyed if your company culture isn’t set up to foster the kind of work you’re trying to do,” Powell says.

What that internal transformation looks like at GMP includes open offices and less bureaucracy. Powell decided the marble-clad, imposing company headquarters made no sense. She moved everyone out of their individual spaces to a revamped, open, light-filled office above the Transmission & Distribution garage nearby, where the line crews work. Open spaces foster communication – Powell’s desk is right next to the line workers. She also peeled away layers of stale process to make the company more nimble, with the motto being “fast, fun and effective.” Employees are empowered to make well-reasoned decisions to solve problems for customers. “We’re here to serve customers. That’s why we do what we do. That has to come first,” she says. The transformation seems to be working. Not only does GMP consistently land among top utilities for its size on JD Power’s customer service rankings; its innovative work also earned GMP a spot among Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World three years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019).

The Resilient Home pilot program, using the battery as the meter, fits into GMP’s customer-centric approach. The model benefits not only participating customers like Erik Yunghans but also all other GMP customers because of the projected $1.5 million saved through peak shaving. Customers pay $30 per month for two Powerwall batteries, and GMP can share their stored energy to drive down peaks. The pilot program has room for 500 customers – 250 leasing their batteries from GMP this way, and 250 buying their batteries from private companies around the state. GMP provides a discount for those customers to help reduce the cost while growing the third-party marketplace.
 

GMP President and CEO Mary Powell with her team accepting the Deane C. Davis Vermont Business
of the Year Award from the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Business Magazine, May, 2019.
 

“The minute I saw the email from GMP about Resilient Home, I emailed right back and picked up the phone to sign up,” Yunghans said. “I’d tried to get into GMP’s original Powerwall program, but it was full. I wasn't going to miss out on this one!” Others had the same idea. GMP had incredible customer interest – more than 1,000 customers reached out in the first 24 hours after the announcement.

The original Powerwall program Yunghans is talking about was pivotal for GMP – 2,000 batteries are now in customers’ homes, and word is out that battery storage can conveniently power you through outages. The program launched in 2017 and has also proved that storage can be key to controlling costs for all customers. GMP calls on that stored energy network several times a year to go after peaks. Josh Castonguay, GMP’s Chief Innovation Officer, says overall the pilot will save customers about $2 million.

He explains how gratifying it was to see years of hard work paid off when GPM used the network of Powerwalls for the first time last summer.

“Our system worked seamlessly to drive down demand at the key moment it needed to, which translates into savings for customers. This is what our new energy future looks like, delivering on innovations while finding ways to cut costs and carbon emissions,” Castonguay said. That experience is fueling the new step of also using the battery as the meter in the new Resilient Home pilot program.

Yunghans made it into the program as he was one of the first to call in this spring. His home is in a rural area, and the Powerwalls give him great, low carbon power backup instead of a traditional generator. The battery?as?meter aspect of this program appeals to his clean energy / innovative technology ethos – the family heats and cools their home with heat pumps networked with GMP for peak control, and he also drives an electric vehicle. “This is a great step toward a cleaner grid and energy future, and we’re thrilled!”

That’s music to Powell’s ears. She describes the batteries in the Resilient Home program as breathing in and out. “This is the future of the energy system happening now, right here in Vermont. The power is low carbon, flowing back and forth. It means more independence for custom­ers while driving down costs for them and making an impact on climate change. It’s a win-win-win!”
 

Line worker Matt Butler at GMP’s solar-storage facility in Panton, VT.
 

GMP wouldn’t be in this pioneering spot without years of work toward this vision of a cleaner, more distributed grid. It was during GMP’s first Powerwall program that the energy data coming from the batteries created an ‘Aha’ moment. “We realized that there could be a way to maximize this technology for customers and make the energy system even more efficient by using it as the meter. You don’t need that chunk of metal on the side of your house anymore.” GMP then took that idea, and developed a way to make the meter concept work. In testing before the pilot launched, the innovation team found that the data from the Powerwall was just as accurate as what was coming from smart meters. The company applied for a patent before announcing the pilot this spring.

“Does this mean meters are going away? We hope so,”Powell said. “We’re learning from this pilot the way we’ve learned from the others we’ve done. We push forward, learn, and innovate for customers. We build on our experience and keep customers as our North Star. In this time of climate crisis and disruption in the energy business, it is serving our customers well.”