Plainfield Community Power
Plainfield Community Power Energy Aggregation Plan - Draft
Plainfield Community Power is a program to provide electric power supply and services for residents, businesses, and other entities in the Town of Plainfield that is authorized under RSA 53-E.
The Legislature’s purpose in enabling Community Power was to encourage voluntary, cost effective and innovative solutions to local needs with careful consideration of local conditions and opportunities. RSA 53-E allows municipalities and counties to aggregate retail electric customers, including residential, non-profit, and small commercial accounts, to provide such customers access to competitive markets for supplies of electricity and related energy services.
Community Power programs operate on a competitive basis and are self-funded through revenues generated by participating customers. The Town of Plainfield will not need to raise taxes to fund the program.
Aggregations provide small customers with similar opportunities to those currently available to large electric customers in obtaining lower electric costs, reliable service, and secure energy supplies, particularly as they differ from standard default service provided by the incumbent electric utilities.
Plainfield’s three incumbent electric utilities, Liberty, Eversource and the NH Electric Co-op (NHEC), who each serve a specific region within the Town, will continue to own and operate the distribution grid and be responsible for delivering power to participating customers. The NH Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC) is currently drafting rules regarding the implementation and operation of Community Power programs within the state.
The Plainfield Electric Aggregation Committee, a subcommittee of the Plainfield Energy Committee, was tasked by the Plainfield Select Board with drafting this Electric Aggregation Plan, which sets forth goals, implementation and management principles, and requirements for the program required by RSA 53-E, for consideration by Plainfield Town Meeting. Approval of this plan by Town Meeting as the legislative body then authorizes the Select Board to arrange and contract for the necessary professional services and power supplies to launch Plainfield Community Power.
The Town of Plainfield is a founding member of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire (CPCNH), a nonprofit created to streamline and enhance the implementation and operation of multiple individual Community Power programs on a statewide basis. CPCNH will contract with qualified vendors and credit-worthy suppliers to provide the services, credit support and electricity required to launch and operate members’ Community Power programs. These third parties are expected to fund the upfront cost of implementing member programs, with costs recovered through program revenues.
This plan enables, but does not require, Plainfield to participate fully in CPCNH and to appoint representatives to the CPCNH Board of Directors to oversee these activities.
Due to the participation of several other municipalities, CPCNH will launch at a scale equivalent to Liberty Utilities and may become larger than Unitil within the 2022-23 timeframe (in terms of the number of customers on default service and quantity of electricity procured by these utilities).
Plainfield Community Power is well aligned with our community’s policy objectives of achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and thermal and transportation energy by 2050, as voted on and approved at Town Meeting in March 2018 with the adoption of the Town’s Ready for 100 Resolution. Plainfield’s program goals are:
• Competitive Rates & Choices that must meet or beat those offered by Liberty, Eversource or the NHEC at launch, and must offer choices in terms of the percentage supply of renewable power offered in each supply mix as well as pricing options.
• Fiscal Stability & Financial Reserves to ensure the program is able to maintain competitive rates over time and advance the Town’s policy goals over the long-term (e.g, development of local energy resources and programs);
• Enhanced Customer Focus to enable customers to adopt new clean energy technologies that reduce energy expenditures and carbon emissions.
• Consumer Protections to ensure contracts entered in to are fair, and to represent the Town of Plainfield’s interests on energy issues at the NH Legislature and the NHPUC.
• Cleaner, Local Power to supply an affordable energy portfolio that prioritizes the use of cost- effective renewable energy, local energy projects and customer programs.
• Community Resiliency programs to reduce energy consumption, lower bills, create jobs, and pursue longer-term projects such as building local back-up power supplies.
• Regional Development in support of clean infrastructure developed in collaboration with municipalities, Community Power programs and other government agencies.
• Grid Modernization by supporting informed advocacy for policies, regulations, and infrastructure investments to ensure a decarbonized, affordable and resilient energy system.
The Town of Plainfield’s Electric Aggregation Committee began researching Community Power best practices in January 2020, after determining that the best approach to procuring renewably generated electricity for Plainfield electricity customers was by combining the community’s demand with that of other NH communities. This plan reflects industry best practices.
Click here to view the complete draft of the Plainfield Community Power Energy Aggregation Plan. Two public meetings will be held in Jan and Feb for public comment on this plan.
For a quick overview of what Plainfield Community Power means for you, click here
