With Demand Increasing, Utility Starts To Deal

NStar could push more consumers to install less popular green technology, like the "smart theromostats" people reject because of loss of control, by packaging it with incentives for expensive, green technology and selling it all under a banner of improved efficiency. The overall approach is a major change in an industry that's long focused on supplying energy, not selling less of it, Farber said

"It's a pretty remarkable change of culture," said Farber, who serves on an advisory board for the Marshfield project. "They're not just feeding energy to us. They're becoming potentially the network manager."

Marshfield, a town of 24,000 about 30 miles south of Boston, wasn't chosen because NStar was partial to its salt air or fertile shellfishing beds. Instead, the town's growing energy needs were making the same demands on its system that NStar knew many other communities would soon make, said Penni-McLean Conner, NStar vice president of customer care.

If demand falls in Marshfield, the utility can expand the program, said NStar spokesman Michael Durand.

The "Marshfield Energy Challenge" was launched in April last year by NStar and its partner, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the state's economic development agency for renewable energy, which is splitting the project's $4 million cost.