In 1996, the New Hampshire Legislature enacted legislation which required New Hampshire utilities, such as Eversource, to give up ownership of their electricity-generating facilities. So now, every six months, Eversource goes out to the energy markets and purchases the electricity that they supply to you.

You, a customer, gained the right to go out and select your own supplier from the list of alternate energy suppliers which have been approved by the state. Most of us don’t do that, because it is too much trouble to keep track of energy prices and comparison shop. That is, until last year, when we looked at our bills and asked, “What happened?!”

What happened was a spike in natural gas prices, due in part to the war in Ukraine, at a time when Eversource needed to lock in its supply for the next six months. What also happened was the sun kept shining and the wind kept blowing, free as always. Suddenly the benefits of renewable energy became a little more apparent.

Enter the 2019 legislation that enabled community power in New Hampshire, a concept that started in Denmark (the happy place), grew in Massachusetts, helped California get over its energy crisis and has landed in New Hampshire this year. Its aim is to give municipalities (towns, cities, counties) the right to form their own power agencies and choose their own energy supplier(s) with their own mix of power sources.

Four Monadnock region towns – Keene, Swanzey, Marlborough and Wilton – have taken advantage of community power broker services offered by Standard Power/Good Energy (cp.standardpower.com) to obtain a 30-month agreement with Direct Energy that will provide residents with their choice of one of four rates, with varying amounts of renewable energy (up to 100%).

All rates are significantly lower than the current Eversource rate and, thanks to the aggregate buying power of these four towns, are also lower than the rates offered to individuals by Direct Energy.

Three Monadnock region towns (Peterborough, Harrisville and Walpole) plus seven other New Hampshire towns and cities will be the first to buy their electricity from the Community Power Coalition of NH (CPCNH, cpcnh.org). Instead of making a contract with one supplier, the coalition will create a mix of short- and long-term contracts to even out energy price fluctuations. They will set new rates every six months, in sync with the Eversource rate-change dates.

The coalition will also offer four rate tiers, with renewable energy up to 100%. Until the Eversource rate change in July, all CPCNH rates, even for 100% renewable, are below the Eversource rate. Declining natural gas prices suggest that the Eversource rate will go down in July. The coalition intends that its rates will also go down, to stay below the Eversource rate.

Clearly, community power can offer significant economic advantages compared to utility electricity or even electricity from alternate energy suppliers.

If your town is interested in considering community power options, you should form a municipal community power committee, then consult with the community power committees of the pioneering towns mentioned above to take advantage of their experience. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

Joel Huberman and Bruce Tucker are members of the Peterborough Community Power Committee.