Tuesday, April 23,
10 a.m.
Municipal Aggregation Senate Bill SB286
The Hearing will be in Room 301 of the Legislative Office Building, before the House Municipal & County Government Committee.
If you can’t make the hearing, you can write a brief note of support to: HouseMunicipalandCountyGovt@leg.state.nh.us
Here is a quick summary of some of the key points regarding Municipal Aggregation and SB286:
SB286 will better enable towns to implement innovative, customer-choice approaches to energy procurement:
- Municipal aggregation is a policy municipalities can implement to broker for energy supply on behalf of their community. Communities can broker for energy based on cost, environmental attributes, or other preferences such as local energy resources.
- New Hampshire’s municipal aggregation statute is flawed. It allows only for “opt-in” programs, meaning residents must sign up one at a time to participate in the program. SB286 will allow municipalities the option of implementing “opt-out” programs, in which community members will be automatically enrolled unless they choose not to participate. Successful aggregations require a critical mass of participants to achieve sufficient bulk purchasing power and economies of scale, which is provided by the opt-out model.
- Other states with successful municipal aggregation programs (often referred to as Community Choice Aggregation) have demonstrated the success of the opt-out model. Some 1,300 communities across the nation are implementing municipal aggregation to enable savings and access to more renewable energy.