OK, who let the Leverett Circle genie out this time?

Are getting less and less use, too. Solar power has increased enough that it has shaved back the peaks, especially on the highest energy use days. So the summer days when we use a ton of power for AC are not peaking between 1 and 3 p.m., but rather between 5 and 6, when it's still hot, but solar is coming offline. This is demonstrably good, because it means that peaker plants like this one (and the coal plant in Bow, N.H.) are less likely to run, and they're generally the worst polluters. (Exelon in Everett is planned for closure in 2024.)

They still wind up running in winter because natural gas is diverted away from other plants in order to heat homes, so the normal natural gas plants come offline, and the peaker plants have to go into action. In the summer, there's plenty of natural gas, so the coal plants are less likely to be needed, even if demand is higher.

So, what you can do is turn down your thermostat in winter and put on a sweater, like Jimmy Carter told you to. If enough of us do that, demand for natural gas won't spike quite as high, and we won't have to run the most-expensive, most-polluting power plants.