Mass. utilities file $1.8 bln conservation plan

NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - A coalition of Massachusetts power and natural gas utilities on Tuesday proposed a three-year $1.8 billion energy efficiency and conservation plan expected to save customers more than $4 billion.

The coalition drafted the proposal in response to the state's Green Communities Act, which Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed last summer. The Act requires utilities to develop plans to meet demand by first investing in efficiency and demand reduction before purchasing new energy supplies.

The coalition includes NSTAR (NST.N), National Grid Plc (NG.L) Northeast Utilities' (NU.N) Western Massachusetts Electric, Unitil Corp (UTL.N), Southern Union Co's (SUG.N) New England Gas, Iberdrola SA's (IBE.MC) Berkshire Gas and NiSource Inc's (NI.N) Bay State Gas, among others.

The utilities predicted their proposal would save close to 2.5 million megawatt-hours of electricity and roughly 45 million therms of natural gas over the three year period.

In addition to conserving power and gas, the utilities expect their plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking nearly 40 percent of the cars off the road in Massachusetts and create about 4,000 jobs in the clean energy sector.

The newly created Energy Efficiency Advisory Council will review the plan before making any recommendations to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities by July 31. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Christian Wiessner)