Efficiency Maine Trust’s Triennial Plan VI Approved

The Public Utilities Commission has approved the next three-year plan to help Mainers reduce energy costs.

Augusta, Maine – April 23, 2025 – Efficiency Maine Trust (Efficiency Maine), the independent administrator for programs to improve the efficiency of energy use and reduce greenhouse gases in Maine, today announced that the Maine Public Utilities Commission has approved Efficiency Maine’s strategic plan spanning the period from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.

Triennial Plan VI (the Plan) is Efficiency Maine’s roadmap for the next three years, continuing the core programs that Maine homeowners and businesses have become familiar with as a pathway to lowering their annual energy bills. With its suite of consumer information, technical support, financial incentives, and links to contractors, the Plan forecasts that its programs will result in 38,000 homes heated entirely with heat pumps (including 6,500 low-income homes); 9,900 homes weatherized, and 137 megawatts of summer peak grid-load reductions by 2028. A typical Maine home heated entirely with heat pumps will save, on average, more than $600 per year on their heating bill.

Other key elements of the Plan include:

• energy upgrades for large facilities and manufacturers,
• advanced heating and cooling systems for nonresidential buildings, such as offices, hotels, schools, assisted living facilities, and agricultural facilities,
• high-efficiency water heaters to be discounted at distributors and retail stores, and
• continuing plans to support the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure throughout the state and to help businesses and low-income customers take advantage of lower-cost EVs.

“According to our analysis, the approved Plan will deliver a broad range of benefits throughout the Maine economy,” said Michael Stoddard, executive director of Efficiency Maine. “It will continue growth of the market that has provided a strong source of economic activity for hundreds of small businesses and good jobs for their employees.”

Statewide, Maine homeowners and businesses are expected to save more than 35 million gallons of heating oil over the lifetime of the energy improvements that are installed. In addition to the savings from consuming less energy, the Plan also delivers a strategy to push down electricity rates. The Plan forecasts that the more efficient use of the grid resulting from beneficial electrification of heating and transportation will suppress electricity rates by more than $490 million over the long term.

For more information on Triennial Plan VI visit https://www.efficiencymaine.com/triennial-plan-vi/.

About Efficiency Maine Trust

The Efficiency Maine Trust (Efficiency Maine) is the independent, quasi-state agency established to plan and implement energy efficiency programs in Maine. Through its suite of nationally recognized programs, Efficiency Maine provides consumer information, marketing support, demonstration pilots, discounts, rebates, loans, and other initiatives to promote high-efficiency equipment and operations that help Maine’s homes, businesses, and institutions reduce their energy costs and lower their greenhouse gas emissions. The result is job growth, better grid reliability, improved energy independence, a stronger local economy, and critical progress toward meeting the State’s climate change goals. Efficiency Maine is governed by a Board of Trustees with oversight from the Maine Public Utilities Commission. Visit www.efficiencymaine.com for more information.

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Contact:
Kate Rankin, Director of Communications
Efficiency Maine Trust
207-512-5905
Kate.rankin@efficiencymaine.com