Opinion: Joint Electricity Aggregation Approved by DPU, Launch Projected for Fall
Photo: Valley Green Energy
Local and Green, May 2024
Municipal electricity aggregation is the most impactful action cities and towns can do to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It is projected to do so by our Amherst Climate Action and Resilience Plan. We’ve been working on getting it for over six years and now we finally have our approval! Hurray!
Local officials, activists and residents are celebrating a big milestone in the long-time-coming implementation of Valley Green Energy (VGE), a joint municipal electricity aggregation among Amherst, Northampton, and Pelham. On April 9, the Department of Public Utilities approved Valley Green Energy’s application. Now the work begins – to be done primarily by consultant/broker Mass Power Choice – to notify and educate residents of the three communities and to procure power supply. Official launch of the program is set for fall of 2024.
Participating in Valley Green Energy has so many advantages. It will provide cleaner electricity from local renewable energy projects. Participants will automatically receive more electricity from renewable sources in the New England region. Your participation can support local jobs and build demand for more renewable energy on our local power grid, thus minimizing our greenhouse gas emissions.
VGE will also provide a stable, competitive electricity supply price. Valley Green Energy offers long-term, fixed electricity supply prices that can protect you from seasonal utility price changes. In addition, the program aims to provide prices that are competitive with Eversource’s Basic Service prices. However, because Eversource’s prices change and their future prices are not known, savings cannot be guaranteed.
Unlike a lot of current “green” offerings folks receive in the mail, VGE will provide transparency and consumer protections.
An electricity aggregation is a kind of group electricity buying program for cities and towns with no hidden fees or penalties … and in our case is administered by the Town of Amherst, the City of Northampton, and the Town of Pelham.
If Eversource is your supplier, your electricity account will be automatically enrolled in Valley Green Energy unless you choose not to participate. The automatic enrollment model is in accordance with Massachusetts state law.
If Eversource is not your supplier, you will need to opt in to Valley Green Energy.
Valley Green Energy provides four energy options for you to choose from. If you take no action, your electricity account will be automatically enrolled in the “Standard Green” offering. With Standard Green you will receive an additional percentage of your electricity from premium renewable sources in the New England region, in addition to the minimum renewable energy required by state law.
You can also request the “100% Green Option” to receive all of your electricity from premium renewable resources in the New England region (MA Class I RECs), a “Local Option”, to receive a certain percentage of your electricity from renewable energy projects in the Valley Green Energy territory, in addition to receiving the minimum renewable energy required by state law, or the “Budget option” to enjoy price stability and consumer protections but receive no additional electricity from renewable sources beyond the minimum required by state law.
The three towns are currently working under a Memorandum of Understanding and an Aggregation Plan. There is a Valley Green Energy Working Group composed of a staff member from each community and non-voting community members. Mass Power Choice is staffing the project under a three year contract and will be helping to implement the launch. In launching Valley Green Energy, Amherst, Northampton, and Pelham will join more than 150 other cities and towns in Massachusetts with similar programs, many of which are also “green aggregations”.
Implementation of Valley Green Energy could be a game changer for Amherst in accomplishing our climate action goals and in stabilizing electricity prices for customers.
In my next column, I’ll give more background on how Valley Green Energy came into being!
Darcy DuMont is a former town councilor and sponsor of the legislation creating the Amherst Energy and Climate Action Committee. She is a founding member of Zero Waste Amherst, Local Energy Advocates of Western MA, and the Amherst Climate Justice Alliance and a non-voting member of Valley Green Energy Working Group. She can be contacted at dumint140@gmail.com.
We have rooftop solar. Will this in any way change the relationship that we have with Eversource, particularly re: the rate we receive for what we put into the grid or the monthly rebates?
If you have solar panels on your property or you participate in a community solar program, you will continue to receive solar credits and/or solar incentive payments, and participating in Valley Green Energy will not change how they are calculated. See the Valley Green Energy FAQ page. https://www.masspowerchoice.com/valleygreenenergy/faq
I would like to commend Darcy Dumont and everyone else who has worked diligently on this initiative. Aggregating power in this way with Valley Green Energy at the municipal level is akin to having the default option for a retirement program as “opt in”, which leads to much higher rates of participation in retirement savings.
This is a terrific, tangible step in the right direction for our community and planet.