Collaborate to Scale: Takeaways from HEW2025

October in the Northeast often conjures up images of fall foliage, apple orchards, and, of course, a gathering of 200 heat pump enthusiasts at NEEP’s annual Heating Electrification Workshop (HEW2025).

The theme of this year’s HEW2025 in Princeton, New Jersey – Collaborate to Scale – was woven into every learning session, sidebar conversation, and Dinner Club. As the energy industry navigates shifting landscapes in policy, energy demand, and affordability, one thing remains true. Market actors must break down silos and collaborate on transformational and diverse solutions to deploy efficient, affordable, and clean heating solutions at higher and faster rates than ever before. 

Three key themes emerged from this year’s workshop as important areas for further collaboration across the market. We must prioritize affordability, leverage contractor insights, and take advantage of technology innovation.

Affordability is Paramount
Nearly every discussion about heating sector electrification touched on affordability. Discussions of upfront and operating costs for heat pumps were prevalent during HEW2025 deep dive sessions on optimizing incentive program design and utility rate reform.  

Incentive program design has been a focus at HEW for years. State and utility incentives directly lower upfront costs for countless households. We heard from program administrators in Maine, Maryland, and New York about replicable best practices and jurisdictional nuance that can drive individual program design choices.

• Efficiency Maine is charged with meeting a program goal of installing 275,000 heat pumps by 2027 (they surpassed 100,000 in 2023) in a residential heating market known for delivered fuels and an increasing demand for cooling. This has led to programs that size equipment to whole-home heating loads and work to move quality installs fast.  
• Maryland utility energy efficiency programs have energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction targets. The housing stock frequently has central, ducted HVAC systems, leading Baltimore Gas & Electric to launch new, successful heat pump and home-performance incentive offerings.  
• Con Edison in New York has a fuel-neutral savings requirement based on MMBtu. They serve a dense area with many multifamily homes, creating a program dominated by mini-split systems.  
• Despite their differences, one throughline of these programs remains incentivizing households to install efficient, electrified heating equipment. These 3 programs alone are installing tens of thousands of heat pumps per year with incentives ranging from $1,000 - $15,000, all to save energy and reduce upfront costs for customers. 
   

To supplement the upfront cost reduction conversations, this year’s HEW featured an exciting discussion on utility rates that quickly became the talk of the Workshop.  

Analyses demonstrate that high performance heat pumps deliver annual utility bill savings for households currently heating with electric resistance or delivered fuels like propane and oil. Even though heat pumps are 2-4 times more energy-efficient than furnaces, monthly bill savings for a gas-to-heat pump conversion are more situationally specific, dependent on factors like envelope efficiency, equipment sizing, and, critically, the “spark gap.”  

The spark gap is the ratio of gas to electricity rates paid by customers. The lower the spark gap, the more likely a customer will realize operating costs savings in a gas-to-heat pump conversion. As expert panelists explained in the deep dive session on utility rates, many existing electric rates do not fully integrate and value the benefits of heat pumps. However, that could change as utilities in the region develop new rate designs for a modern, efficient, and dynamic energy system.  

Starting this November in Massachusetts, qualifying customers of the state’s three large electric utilities will be able to enroll in new heat pump rates. The rates are designed to better reflect the value of heat pumps on the distribution system and are intended to ensure that seasonal bills remain affordable. By next year’s HEW, we should have a sense of their effectiveness in the field, which could spark even more adoption across the region.  

Contractors Remain a Keystone to Market Transformation
Throughout the first day at HEW, most sessions touched on the critical role of contractors in transforming the heating sector. Attendees heard about: 

• the successes of and opportunity to scale qualified contractor networks tied to state or utility programs
• the importance of heating load calculations via Manual J  
• the need for further training on heat pump installation best practices for both water and space heating 
   

The Day Two plenary delivered one of the best-received sessions of the workshop, featuring New Jersey contractors who took time out of their day to share insights from the field. Building upon the discussion from the previous day, audience members learned that contractors: 

• prefer less administratively burdensome programs and see opportunities to bring more participants into the heat pump market by streamlining program requirements, incentive levels, and paperwork.  
• are looking for ways to make heating load calculations easier and would love to see state and utility programs support contractors with design software tools that can be used in the field to streamline Manual J calculations while maintaining quality and accuracy.  
• are eager to continue learning about heating electrification trends and best practices, especially via trainings that can be incorporated into or completed on site at jobs, whether it be videos or in-field/on-job inspection and teaching from experts.
   

The installer-customer relationship is the lynchpin to decision-making when it comes to choosing, designing, installing, and maintaining HVAC equipment. To have heating electrification trends accelerate and leap forward in 2026, industry leaders and market actors will need to heavily invest in initiatives and programs that are responsive to contractors and their expert experience in the field.  

Advanced Technologies & Innovative Program Solutions are Gaining Ground
This year’s HEW was not limited to discussions on small residential air-source heat pump. Indeed, HEW hosted dedicated sessions on thermal energy networks, multifamily programs and retrofit solutions, and industrial-scale heat pumps that got folks talking.  

Princeton University’s David Weis, Director of the Campus Plant, provided a deep dive into the campus’ geo-exchange systems that are transitioning parts of the institution away from fossil-fuel-generated steam. The University then welcomed several HEW attendees on a site visit to see one of the geo-exchange and heat pump systems at the school’s TIGER plant. As states and jurisdictions in the region look to expand neighborhood- and campus-scale ground-source heat pump solutions, we need to share success and lessons learned from early models like Princeton.  

Similarly, the push to efficiently electrify large multifamily properties and industrial processes is growing and requires a concerted effort across stakeholders to scale solutions. We heard from engineers, affordable housing developers, and efficiency technology experts on the size of opportunities in these sectors as well as the challenges. New York City itself has nearly 18,000 large multifamily properties covered by Local Law 97, the City’s Building Performance Standard that will drive energy retrofits in existing buildings. Meanwhile, affordable housing stakeholders are stressing the importance of holistic affordability in a time of financial stress for families. Energy solutions—especially HAVC solutions—must deliver cost savings for low-income households that are already struggling to make rent payments.  

Electrification of the multifamily sector has a long runaway ahead, but the market with some of the largest untapped potential for heat pumps may be one that many people hadn’t been thinking of until very recently – industrial processes. The HEW session on industrial electrification showcased the growing opportunity in the region for electrifying lower-temperature industrial processes, especially in sectors such as food and beverage.  

Look for more from NEEP and many other partners next year on these emerging solutions.

Thank You!
HEW2025 in Princeton was an active, insightful convening of key stakeholders in the heating sector. As we look ahead to HEW2026 in Portland, Maine, the next 12 months must be defined by collaboration and momentum. Contractors, utilities, manufacturers, policymakers, engineers, community organizations, and so many more need to continue to generate open dialogue, innovate together, and share learnings to accelerate the deployment of efficient and affordable solutions. Let’s keep this going – see you in Portland!