Community Power Committee

 

Francestown residents can pay less for their electricity by embracing “community power.” Recently the Select Board initiated a process to empower town residents to negotiate for lower electricity rates.

 

A Community Power Committee was appointed and has begun work to prepare for Town Meeting in March 2024. “Community Power” was made possible by state laws passed in 2019 (HB 315 & SB 91). The legislation authorizes towns to purchase electricity supply for residents and small businesses by aggregating and leveraging the buying power of a town’s electricity customers and negotiating a price for the power they consume.  The utility selected by the town continues to manage billing and maintenance. Currently in NH, electricity is delivered to homes by Eversource, while individual customers choose from an array of suppliers offering varied rates. However, in the absence of customer aggregation electricity consumers in New Hampshire pay the fifth highest rates in the nation.

 

As of the summer of 2023 sixteen NH towns and cities have begun Community Power programs that provide lower rates than those charged to individual residents by NH’s utility companies. Keene, along with partner towns Wilton, Swanzey, and Marlborough, pioneered Community Power in the Monadnock region. Also locally, Harrisville joined a coalition of eleven other towns and cities to negotiate for lower rates. As of July, savings for participating households for a six month period range from $48 to $90, with a base price per kilowatt hour significantly below what Eversource, Liberty, and Unitil charge. Hancock and Peterborough are expected to adopt Community Power soon.

 

Francestown’s Community Power Committee (CPC) was appointed in late July and met for the first time on August 9. The committee is charged with bringing a warrant article to Town Meeting 2024 that, if approved, would empower the town to pursue Community Power. To prepare such a warrant article, the CPC will conduct a survey of residents to determine what Francestownians want with respect to their electric service. Based on survey results the CPC will formulate an Energy Aggregation Plan to accompany the proposed warrant article. The plan will articulate the town’s energy goals. If voters support the warrant article, the process to select an energy supplier would begin with robust communication to all residents as decisions are made.

 

No individual homeowner would be compelled to participate. Residents may “opt out” at any time without a penalty.  Homeowners who prefer to choose a supplier on their own may continue to do so.

 

In the first year of Community Power in New Hampshire two models have emerged. A non-profit coalition of thirty-three towns and cities incorporated as the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire (CPCNH) to aggregate the purchasing power of their members’ 125,000 customers. Twelve towns in the CPCNH launched their plans in 2023. Many others are set to participate in 2024. An alternative model was selected by Keene and its partner villages. They chose to negotiate through a for-profit broker/consultant, Standard Power and Good Energy. The broker achieved rates comparable, or better, than the CPCNH. Keene’s town website has an array of documents and videos explaining how their program works at keenecommunitypower.com. Given the newness of the Community Power program in NH, undoubtedly other models will pop up in the next few years.

 

Both CPCNH and Standard Power aspire to increase the proportion of electricity supplied from renewable energy sources. For some towns, leveraging growth of energy generation from renewable sources is an important goal of their Community Power initiatives. Standard Power offers a range of prices per kilowatt hour to Keene and Wilton customers depending on the percentage of renewable sources in the supply. Towns in the CPCNH coalition may choose to pay a higher rate than the base rate for more of their energy supply to be generated by renewables. 

 

The Select Board appointed six residents as members of the new Community Power Committee. Three members have lived in town for more than forty years:  Sue Jonas, Jim Pietrovito, and Jim Tovey. Ari Levine, Ben Pollack, and Kevin Pobst are newer town residents serving on the CPC. Levine was selected as the CPC Chair, based on his enthusiasm and knowledge. He was a leader in Harrisville’s adoption of Community Power; that town is now a member of CPCNH.

 

In the coming months Francestown’s CPC is planning to conduct a community-wide survey and community-engagement and education events to prepare residents to decide about Community Power at Town Meeting 2024.