What is Community Choice Aggregation?
Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is a program that enables a municipality to procure electricity from a supplier other than its utility provider (National Grid and Eversource). By aggregating customers, towns are able to negotiate a contract to obtain rates that are more stable and often lower than the current utility rates
Who pays for setting up and running a CCA?
Towns engage an energy broker who sets up the CCA at no expense to the town. Once the CCA is operational, the Energy Broker is paid a small commission on the total electricity purchased in the plan. Shutesbury’s Energy Broker, Colonial Power Group, has a commission of $0.001 per kWh, which is typical for these arrangements, and that commission will be included in each participating household’s electricity bill.
What happens if the power goes out? Who do I call?
Existing utilities continue to own and operate the power infrastructure, to address power outages, and to provide billing and customer services. You'll call National Grid or Eversource to report a power outage or emergency.
How does CCA affect my electricity bill?
Participants will continue to receive a single bill from National Grid or Eversource and make one payment to National Grid or Eversource. The only change you will see on your bill is in the “energy supply” line, where the name of Shutesbury’s supplier, First Point Power, will be noted clearly on the electricity bill.
How does CCA affect households that have net metering?
Enrolling in CCA has no impact on your net metering, which will remain unchanged. In the event that household solar production exceeds total billed use, a Net Meter Credit line will appear under the bill's Delivery Services. That credit will be paid at the utility’s Basic Service Rate while the customer continues to pay for electricity at their chosen First Point rate.
How does CCA affect fuel discounts or assistance programs?
Participants will continue to get all fuel assistance benefits that National Grid or Eversource delivers. Benefits of the Low Income Discount Rate as well as the Farm Discount or budget billing all stay in place under aggregation. Any utility discounts granted from the Governor's office extend to all customers, regardless of the electricity supplier, as they discount infrastructure transmission/distribution costs (not electricity costs).
Does the CCA program require that people join?
No. People can opt out at any time (nationally, only 3-5% do this).
What are RECs and do they help reduce carbon emissions?
In Massachusetts, green electricity (Class I RECs) is defined as electricity produced from renewable sources such as solar, wind, small hydro, digester gas, or geothermal on the New England power grid from a source built after 1997. In other words, RECs originate from electricity generating projects that have already been built. When a household chooses the 100% Class I REC option they are buying renewable energy certificates from these producers in excess of state requirements. The electricity households use is always a mix of electrons from fossil fuel and renewable sources. What many community members care about is whether their purchase of extra RECs creates an incentive for energy developers to build new renewable energy projects, retire fossil fuel-based sources, and clean the grid. Energy analysts and academics are split on whether voluntary household REC purchases send an effective market signal for new renewable capacity development. Although REC purchases should, in theory, stimulate additional renewable energy capacity, there is inconclusive evidence that this is the case.
Given that CCA provides electricity supply choice options, when in the process of setting up a CCA program were the choices established?
Supply prices are dependent on the market, and the bidding stage is relatively late in the process — after a town has voted to authorize CCA, an Energy Broker has been selected, and DPU has approved the aggregation plan. Colonial Power Group, our Energy Broker, provided ECAC with an array of supply options and associated rates, the ECAC selected options from that array, and Colonial sent out bids for those options. Returned bids were presented to the ECAC, which chose the lowest default price it could obtain for the three-year term of its contract selected its vendor accordingly. ECAC took its recommendation to the Select Board who followed ECAC’s recommendation and contracted the chosen vendor for those option rates. Colonial has laid out this sequence of steps in a dated timeline “Where We’ve Been — and Where We’re Going.”
Many people in Shutesbury are concerned about clear-cutting forests to site solar arrays. Is it possible to specify that Class I RECs come from responsibly-sited solar?
Colonial Power Group reports that vendors have no way to guarantee that the Class I RECs they offer have been sourced from reclaimed brownfields or similar, degraded lands.
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