A new green electricity service designed to lower energy costs in an environmentally sustainable way is arriving in Amherst, Pelham and Northampton in November.
The three communities announced that they signed an electricity supply contract with First Point Power, a Cranston, Rhode Island, based company, to enable the launch of Valley Green Energy.
According to the city of Northampton and town of Amherst, the program is a regional group electricity buying program developed to provide the dual benefits of cleaner electricity and stable prices to residents and businesses in all three communities.
Participants in the program will have prices fixed until November 2026, according to the communities, providing stable prices and protection from seasonal electricity price spikes during that time period.
“Lower prices and greener electricity … those were the goals of the program and we have achieved them in this initial offering,” said Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman. “We built an excellent partnership with Northampton and Pelham and are proud to bring this unique multi-community approach along with a larger market share to this initiative.”
In prior Reminder Publishing coverage, Stephanie Ciccarello, Amherst’s director of sustainability, said that making this program an intermunicipal effort instead of becoming community choice aggregation communities independently was the more appealing move.
“By combining our three communities together there are then more residents, more customers if you will, so it makes it more appealing for having more bargaining power and getting more companies interested,” Ciccarello said, prior to the selection of First Point Power as the choice.
According to Ben Weil, the interim director for Northampton’s Climate Action and Project Administration department, residents in the three communities will automatically be enrolled in the new energy program when it officially begins this fall.
There is an option to opt out of the program, but if participants decide to do that, then they will pay more for electricity.
“We’ve basically designed it to make sure that your basic service will save you money,” Weil told Reminder Publishing. “We’re making sure that if you do nothing, you will pay a lower rate, and it will be more stable.”
The program will offer a lower and more stable price than the current electrical utility companies that operate in the three communities: National Grid in Northampton and Eversource in Amherst and Pelham.
According to the towns, those two companies will continue to manage customers’ billing, address power outages and deliver electricity without interruption.
“This effort has been years in the making, and I’m proud we’re about to be able to offer these lower prices and cleaner energy to Northampton residents,” said Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, “I am deeply grateful to our partners in Amherst and Pelham for their hard work in building this partnership and program.”
The program promises lower energy costs in an environmentally stable way. Participants in Valley Green Energy will automatically receive 10% renewable energy content for 13.994 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is lower than Eversource’s expected residential supply price of 14.023 cents per kilowatt-hour and National Grid’s expected residential supply price of 16.005 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Although these automatic prices will be fixed until November 2026, the communities noted how future prices are unknown, and utilities’ prices change, meaning future savings are not guaranteed.
According to the communities, there will also be two additional program options that will be available by request. Participants can choose to receive electricity with 100% renewable energy content at 16.474 cents per kilowatt-hour or the minimum amount of renewable content required by law at 13.594 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The only people who will not automatically receive the standard offer of 13.994 cents/kilowatt hour are the ones who have already selected a third-party supplier. Those people, according to Weil, will have to opt in to Valley Green Energy.
“We want people to understand that if they already have a third-party energy supplier, they can opt out of that one and opt in to Valley Green Energy,” Weil said. “It’ll take about a month to roll over.”
According to Weil, First Point Power was one of five bidders interested in the program. The Rhode Island company was chosen because it came with the lowest prices while still providing the 10% more renewable energy credits that will automatically show up on residents’ and business’ bills come November.
“We wanted to make sure that everybody in all communities would save money and have greener electricity,” he said.
Weil explained the concept of renewable energy credits and what it means when a community choice aggregation program such as this offers 10% renewable energy content.
He said it is almost impossible to pinpoint exactly where electricity comes from when someone turns on a light because there is usually a mix of suppliers on a grid, but utilities are required to meet the commonwealth’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which means utilities must increase its renewable energy content on an annual basis.
To increase this content and meet those standards, Weil said utility companies have the option to either buy renewable energy credits, where one credit equals one megawatt hour of electricity from a renewable energy facility, or contract with someone to build a new solar or wind farm.
Weil explained this concept so more people can understand what the communities mean when they say the program offers an additional 10% renewable energy content.
“When we are buying these renewable energy credits, in theory, we are putting pressure on the market to generate more renewable energy overall,” Weil said. “That’s really what it means when we’re saying we’ve got more renewable energy content.”
Valley Green Energy received state regulatory approval in April. According to the towns, nearly 200 Massachusetts communities participate in a similar program including Greenfield, Hatfield, Leverett and Northfield.
“This program proves that together we can save people money while making real progress addressing the challenges of climate change,” Weil said.
