Page 7 - BusinessWest May 12, 2021

well as efficiency and conservation programs and development of emerging clean-energy technologies, all of which have the utility well-positioned to meet the state’s net-zero target by 2050 (established in the recent clean-energy bill), as well as incremen- tal benchmarks for 2030 (50% below 1990’s emissions levels) and 2040 (75% below).
But long before these mandates and net-zero targets were put in place, HG&E was taking full advantage of its assets, especially those in the clean-energy category, and promoting what it called “cost-competitive clean energy.”
This track record, coupled with many recent initiatives, has
The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center is located in Holyoke, in large part, because of the low-cost, green energy available there.
earned HG&E recognition among a handful of utilities nation- wide for its leadership in transforming to a carbon-free energy system by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and a spot on the 2021 Utility Transformation Leaderboard. There, it joins just nine other utilities, all of them much larger, including Southern California Edison, Green Mountain Power in Vermont, and Con- solidated Edison of New York.
“We’re extremely fortunate that we have this infrastructure at our disposal — 50 megawatts of hydro in our backyard. It’s a tremendous asset that we try to take full advantage of.”
While Lavelle is clearly proud of the award, what it means, and what it says about his utility, he is focused as much on what it — and all of the utility’s efforts toward clean, modern energy
— mean for Holyoke. Indeed, the municipal utility and its lower- cost energy have always been selling points and economic-devel- opment engines, he said, but they become even more so as the energy becomes cleaner and greener.
This was in evidence with the Massachusetts Green High Per- formance Computing Center, which is based in Holyoke, in large part, because of the availability of vast amounts of clean, lower- cost energy, said Lavelle, adding that these factors also played sizable roles in bringing two huge cannabis-production facilities
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BusinessWest FEATURE MAY 12, 2021 7