Dover won't start NH community power program for lower electric bills yet. Here's why.

DOVER — The city’s bid to lower electricity bills for residents and expand access to renewable energy sources through the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire is on pause following a City Council vote.

Short one councilor last week, the council's vote on whether to officially launch the program resulted in a 4-4 tie. The motion before councilors called for approval of the cost-sharing agreement and member services contract with the nonprofit coalition in addition to allowing City Manager Michael Joyal Jr. to execute a contract with the coalition.

The tie vote among councilors meant that the motion failed. Deputy Mayor Dennis Shanahan, who would have cast the tiebreaking vote, was not present at the meeting.

Dover resilience manager Jackson Kaspari outlined in a memo the city could either quickly join the coalition as part of a wave of Granite State communities enrolling customers in late June, or wait to join along with the next wave of New Hampshire municipalities, likely in April 2024, which is the option Kaspari recommended.

It is estimated residents and other electricity customers could save 23% on their monthly electric bills after joining the coalition. Portsmouth is among the communities joining in 2023.

By not voting to approve the agreement and contract with the coalition to begin next month, the city will have to wait until at least spring 2024 to have city customers be part of the coalition.

City staff: Wait to enroll next year

With the coalition’s recent hiring of a chief executive officer and the lack of a full-time coalition staff assembled, Dover staff previously recommended the city wait until 2024 to begin enrolling city customers in the community power program.

“While customer savings and reserves could be realized sooner with a June 2023 launch, it is my recommendation that the City take the (risk-averse) approach of waiting to launch a program with Wave 2 in Spring 2024,” Kaspari wrote in his memo. “The City does not need to act regarding a competitive supply contract and can simply include the load as part of the Dover Community Power Program at that time.”

Before last week’s vote, councilors weighed whether to wait to enroll Dover customers and potentially lose out on current electricity savings or join immediately within a shorter application window while the coalition gains its footing.

Councilors Fergus Cullen, Debra Hackett, Robert Hinkel and Deborah Thibodeaux voted in favor of Dover initiating a contract to utilize the coalition’s services. Mayor Bob Carrier, along with councilors Linnea Nemeth, Michelle Muffett-Lipinski and Lindsey Williams, voted against the motion.

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Dover mayor: City will join coalition eventually

Carrier said Tuesday that Dover won’t face any repercussions for not joining now or for potentially joining later. The mayor added, however, that there is no projection for what electricity prices could look like in the future.

Carrier noted that it’s a matter of when — not if — Dover Community Power will take effect.

“For sure we’ll join. We’re in the market of doing everything we can to save money,” he said. “I think that the community power coalition is going to work, it's just that it’s very new. We want to take up the recommendation of the committee to make sure it’s a good time to join.”

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What are electricity supply rates through the coalition?

If Dover joins next year, Eversource will continue to send out electricity bills as Dover’s energy distributor. Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, which includes several Seacoast communities, will serve as city customers’ new energy supplier. Unlike Eversource, the coalition has the ability to buy multiple short- and long-term energy contracts in bulk, offering an array of energy sources for customers to select from.

Through July 31, according to Kaspari’s memo, Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire electricity supply rates for residential and small commercial customers are set at 15.8¢ per killowatt hour (kWh). Eversource’s rates in that period, by comparison, for most customers are 20.2¢ per kWh, a 22% difference from the coalition, per the memo.

The 15.8¢ per kWh price is the basic rate among the coalition’s four electricity choices for customers. The basic rate, according to Kaspari’s memo, offers 23.4% renewable energy sources.

“Commencement of service of Dover Community Power in June 2023 is forecasted to produce a collective $233,351 savings for Dover electric customers in the first month of operation (July 2023),” Kaspari’s memo reads. “The program will concurrently generate $385,536 during the first month of operation in financial reserves to support long term rate stability and other community benefits.”

A forecast from Dover staff projected an 11-month city coalition customer savings of $899,658 and financial reserve contributions of $1,059,936, should the city have enrolled.

“But there may be savings later, too,” Carrier said. “I think we did the right thing.”

For coalition customers to receive 100% clean energy, they currently would have to pay rates of 19.1¢ per kWh.

The first wave of state communities to begin enrolling customers into the coalition model includes Enfield, Exeter, Hanover, Harrisville, Lebanon, Nashua, Peterborough, Plainfield, Rye, and Walpole. Community power programs in Portsmouth and Canterbury are set to take effect on May 30.

How much will Portsmouth residents save with community power?

Portsmouth City Council member John Tabor sits on the Port City’s Energy Advisory Committee and assisted in the development of the city’s community power program.

With Portsmouth Community Power set to commence in less than two weeks, Tabor expects at least 95% of residents using Eversource, the city’s default provider, to make the switch to the community power program. Residents are automatically included but can choose to opt out.

Customers in Portsmouth are set to save about $34 per month if they choose the coalition’s lowest rate, Tabor said. Residents looking to implement fully renewable energy sources would save $9 a month as part of the coalition.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “We're democratizing electricity and making it locally accountable and saving people money. I think most in line with Portsmouth’s goals is that as a city, we’re making it cheaper to buy 100% renewable power than they’re paying for now.”

The immediate drawbacks for Dover not launching its community power program, he continued, is that they’re not yet saving residents “substantial” money on electricity.

“For just June and July, we’re going to save Portsmouth residents more than $800,000 as an aggregate,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to do that, which is too bad.”

The process would also make it easier for people to utilize renewable energy, rather than navigating through third-party providers, and Dover would lose out on building reserves which could be used to fund future solar projects.

On the flip side, waiting until next spring would allow Dover to further publicize the program and inform community members about its benefits, as well as see how other municipalities are rolling out their respective community power programs in the meantime.

“As coalition members, we want to welcome Dover as soon as they are ready. The more of us in the cooperative, the more buying power we have and the more reserves we build,” Tabor said. “This whole thing is a wonderful example of how no one person can get these benefits themselves, but governments, volunteers and collaborative efforts are doing things for residents that no single person can do.”

The initial 10 municipalities to launch their individual community power programs collectively include 65,994 customers with projected energy cost saving rates of 23%, Kaspari wrote.

In September 22, 2021, Dover's City Council adopted the Joint Powers Agreement of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, making the city one of the coalition's 14 founding member municipalities and counties. In January, the city adopted the Dover Community Power Electric Aggregation, which was approved by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission in March.

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH delays joining community power for lower bills. Here's why.