Holyoke Gas and Electric celebrated on Wednesday, October 5th, at the Veterans Park, the Public Energy and Natural Gas Week, with a community event that saw different local entities and businesses gather, offering information to the public related energy efficiency, electric vehicles , the shared bicycle program, as well as incentives and programs to help with costs and optimize domestic energy consumption, with the arrival of autumn and winter.

In conversation with Kate Sullivan Craven, Director of Marketing and Communications for HG&E, we learned that public power and public natural gas is celebrated across the country during the first week of October. And as a community owned utility, HG&E wanted to celebrate that. “We’ve talked about bringing all of these organizations together to have a celebration and make sure that people are aware of some of the unique programs that we have that can kind of help them through this winter, or maybe encourage them to go electric for their heating or electric for their car”, said Sullivan Craven, adding that talking about some of the unique programs that are here in the city that can help the community with their energies at home.

To learn more about the programs and incentives available, you can visit the Holyoke Gas and Electric page: https://hged.com

The organizations and businesses participating of this celebration were:

• Marcotte Ford & Gary Rome Hyundai: Displaying electric vehicles and offering test drives and education.

• Energy New England: Providing education on electric vehicles and HG&EV incentives. The event is part of National Drive Electric Week, and you can sign up for a test drive by visiting https://driveelectricweek.org/event?e…

• Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC): Free residential energy audits and NextZero incentives

• Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources: State EV incentives and tree planting resources

• Valley Bike Share: Electric pedal assist bicycle service

• Holyoke Fire Department: Fire and carbon monoxide safety

• Holyoke Police Department: Community Policing

• Valley Opportunity Council: Heating Assistance program and other services

• One Holyoke CDC: Program information

• Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce: Business incentives and community information