PORTSMOUTH ― Six Rhode Island cities and towns including Portsmouth have joined together to launch Community Electricity Aggregation (CEA) programs which focus on providing competitively priced rates while also utilizing clean, renewable energy from Rhode Island.
The new programs, set to launch in May 2023, are the culmination of a multi-year effort involving the communities of Barrington, Central Falls, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence and South Kingstown working with electricity aggregator Good Energy. These communities collectively represent over 100,000 eligible electricity users.
“We are happy to be joining with five other communities in Rhode Island in an initiative to bring green and low-cost energy options to our residents,” noted Portsmouth Town Administrator Rich Rainer.
Portsmouth’s CEA program was approved by its Town Council in August 2020 after a public review period, and the Rhode Island Public Utility Commission approved Portsmouth’s program in November 2021. Newport’s program was approved by its City Council in December 2021 and by the PUC in February 2022.
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The CEA program will take effect starting with the May 2023 meter read, and final pricing will be announced about two months in advance of the launch, in March 2023, via community-wide outreach and education initiatives. Electricity users will have the option to opt-out during and after the program enrollment period, and billing and service will continue to be managed by RI Energy (formerly National Grid).
The only changes on the bill for energy consumers participating in the CEA will be the “supplier” section, and, if the plan works the way it is supposed to, the rate itself – several Town Council candidates publicly stated their belief at the League of Women Voters candidate forum held prior to the election that the CEA will offer noticeable savings to Portsmouth residents.
How does the Community Electricity Aggregation program work?
Good Energy, which describes itself as “a national leader in the design, development, implementation and ongoing management of community electricity aggregation programs, serving cities and towns in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Illinois,” wrote on its website regarding its work in Rhode Island that it “coordinated these six municipalities to combine their buying power to procure a common electricity supplier – with no intergovernmental agreements needed.”
Each municipality developed its own aggregation plan, customized to reflect its community priorities, which was then approved by the City or Town Council as well as by the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission. After a bidding process, the group of six municipalities selected NextEra Energy Services, LLC as its electricity supplier.
A packet provided to the Portsmouth Town Council by Good Energy in June 2021 stated the goals of the aggregation program were to secure competitive pricing, provide rate stability, use and support clean energy, and expand consumer choice for electricity supply options.
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When the program launches, any electricity customer in Newport and Portsmouth using Last Resort Service supply from RI Energy will be eligible for automatic enrollment in the new CEA program. Customers will be provided with an opportunity to opt-out before the program starts and, if enrolled, will be able to leave the program at any time without penalty.
During program enrollment, users can leave the program by completing the Opt-Out card (included in their Program Notification letter). There will also be several other ways to leave the program including a website form as well as a telephone number and an email address.
Electricity customers who are enrolled with a third-party supplier will not receive the opt-out letter and will not be eligible for automatic enrollment, but they can voluntarily join the program at any time beginning in May 2023.
RI Energy will continue to deliver electricity, respond to outages and manage all billing for CEA program customers. Customers who participate in the programs will continue to receive a single electricity bill, and utility discount programs, budget billing, and solar or net-metering benefits will not be affected by participating in the CEA programs.
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While the rates are redacted in the public version of the Electric Service Agreement with Good Energy published on the RI Public Utilities Commission website, the company did provide a graph to the Portsmouth Town Council in June 2021 illustrating consistent savings for ratepayers paying a flate rate for a CEA program from 2017 – 2020 in the town of Somerville, Massachusetts in comparison to the fluctuating cost of the basic service provided to their grid by Eversource Energy.
CEA program customers will receive electricity from local renewable energy sources
The municipalities have committed to sourcing the renewable component of their energy supply from within New England, including a significant portion from Rhode Island. Energy from specific Rhode Island projects such as solar power facilities built on brownfields in North Providence and Johnston and wind turbines located in Providence, Coventry and Narragansett will be provided by Providence-based non-profit Green Energy Consumers Alliance.
“Our organization’s mission is to speed the transition to clean energy. And that’s exactly what this program does. We’re going to bring more wind and solar onto the grid and the best part is that it will be from projects located right here in the Ocean State,” said Larry Chretien, Executive Director of GECA.
Electricity users in Newport and Portsmouth will be automatically enrolled in the program’s “standard” option, which in Portsmouth calls for 10% more than the minimum renewable energy requirement, and in Newport for 5% more than the minimum. That additional renewable energy over the legal requirement is the component which would be procured from Rhode Island renewable sources.
In addition to being able to opt-out entirely, users can also opt into a “basic” option using only the legally required minimum of renewable energy (which goes up slightly every year), or they can opt into greener options sourcing either 50% or 100% of their energy from renewables, again with the difference over the minimum legal requirement to be procured from Rhode Island renewable sources.