Peterborough’s Community Power Task Force will present their community power plan draft to the Select Board Tuesday, which Chair Joel Huberman characterized as just the first in a series of steps toward moving the community power plan forward.
One of those important steps, he said, would be taking input from residents and, in return, educating them on what exactly community power is.
“I’d say probably 99% of people don’t really know,” Huberman said.
Community power allows local governments to buy electricity for all of their residents and small businesses in a bulk purchasing program. Approved by the New Hampshire legislature in 2019, municipalities typically work in conjunction with service providers to source the electricity supply.
Peterborough’s Community Power Task Force has been working since it was formed in September of 2021, following town voters passing a warrant article at town meeting in May that set the goal for Peterborough to have 100% of its electricity in town be sourced from renewables by 2030.
“We’re trying to bring the possibility of saving money through aggregation, plus increasing the proportion of renewable electricity in the mix,” Huberman said. “We’re trying to bring them to residents of Peterborough.”
The draft of the plan sets forth three options of organizations for the town to utilize to take advantage of community power, as Huberman said that the task force did not want to make the final selection just yet.
“We decided not to make a decision until after our community power plan is finalized by the Select Board and turned into a warrant article,” he said.
Two of the options are power brokers or service providers, Standard Power and Freedom Energy Logistics. Standard Power currently provides an aggregation plan for the municipality of Peterborough, which Huberman says has provided a higher proportion of renewable energy while saving money.
The other option is to go with the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, which is a group of thirteen municipalities and one county who joined together to streamline the process and logistics of offering a community power program.
“What we can say with great confidence is that every one of these organizations would be great,” said Huberman.
No matter which they choose, he said, it’s important for residents to understand that this only impacts the “supply” portion of the electricity bill residents receive. Eversource will continue to manage the transmission and distribution, wire repair and bills.
Some specifics about the plan are still up in the air until one of these options is chosen, including the format of how community power will be structured and run by the town. But some components are already decided on, including a cost goal set by the task force.
“We’re guaranteeing right at the start that we will meet or beat the Eversource default rate right from the go,” said Huberman.
Additionally, different plans will be offered in addition to the default option, which will meet task force goals of lower cost and higher portions of renewable energy. These plans will include an alternative to be as inexpensive as possible while meeting state requirements for renewable energy, as well as choices for 50% and 100% renewable energy, both of which are anticipated to be at higher prices.
Residents can also choose to opt-out of the community power program and stay with the current default, Eversource.
The higher price point for plans with more renewables is due to demand as opposed to the expense of renewable energy itself, according to Huberman, since many towns are expressing high demand for renewables.
“We expect that the supply will increase and maybe get ahead of the demand,” he said. “We’re hoping that by 2030, our goal for 100% renewable energy for everyone, we’re hoping that it will actually be the cheapest option.”
Following presentation to the Select Board, the plan will be presented at two public hearings in late February.
“We are hoping to get input from the public,” Huberman said. “We want to make sure to incorporate all the wishes of all town residents.”
After this, the final draft of the plan will be presented to the Select Board on March 1, at which point the Selectmen will decide whether it will be included on the town warrant for May town meeting. At that point, it will be up to the voters to decide whether to approve it.
Even after its approval, should voters choose to do so, the plan needs to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission. As such, Huberman said, the task force is aware that it might be some time before the plan gets implemented.
“We’re being relaxed about this, and careful,” he said. “We’re looking for all kinds of input, and we want to integrate those into the plan and make it the best it can possibly be for Peterborough.”
The community power plan will be presented to the Select board on Feb. 1. Public hearings on the plan will be held on Feb. 22 and Feb. 24.