 So we are now recording so welcome everyone I'd like to thank you all for attending this session tonight. We're so excited to finally be here. Announcing Valley green energy and hearing from our elected officials and our executive from our communities and hearing from our consultants from mass power choice. So with that, I would like to talk about quickly the format of this meeting and how we will do this this evening. So, after our opening remarks from our elected officials and our executive from Amherst, we're going to then have mass power choice to their presentation. After their presentation is completed. We would ask you to type your questions. If you notice at the bottom of your screen there's a Q&A feature. If you open that feature you can type your question, and I will read the questions out loud for the consultants and they will then answer the questions and I will be screening for repetition through these questions. So, if someone has, if you do hear a question that's similar to yours, you don't have to type it obviously please refrain from repetition if at all possible. This meeting will be recorded as I announced at the beginning. So that means that you'll have an opportunity to watch it at a later time at your leisure. So with that I don't want to take up too much time I'd like to launch right into the opening remarks and I would like to introduce the Amherst town manager Paul Backelman. Thanks Stephanie. So, and thank you for organizing this and what a terrific or group that's here. We crowd 35 people so far assigned up so that's terrific. So welcome everyone. This is about becoming a community choice aggregation about a community that's making a decision to choose the electric supply, where it comes from and how what kinds of electricity that we're purchasing. Mass Free Communities Palom Northampton Amherst, along with a lot of resident advocates have been collaborating on this for several years. That we began with a feasibility of creating an inter municipal community choice aggregation program, which many people call the CCA. The advisory group investigated various models from across the United States, particularly from California which was has become sort of a model. The choice was hired in 2022 to develop and implement the aggregation plan. We're really fortunate to have the skills and expertise of Paul Gromer and Marlana Patton and others from this firm working on behalf of our three communities. Thank our companion commit communities, Palom in Northampton, for being part of our in our program. And I guess I'm going to hand it over to the mayor to give readings from Northampton. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Good evening, everybody. I am very happy to join my colleagues from Amherst and Pellum and the folks from Mass Power Choice to hear from our communities about Valley Green Energy Community Choice aggregation program. It has been a project of long in the making for our community as well. Since at least 2012 when the city council adopted an order in October of that year to authorize then Mayor Narcowicz who was in his first year as mayor to develop and participate in contracts for power supply and other services jointly with other municipalities. So to say the least we are glad to finally be here at this public comment period. It's been several years but in the spring of 2018 the inter municipal task force of community choice aggregation was created with our partners and this is where the real work began to define what the mission would be and how we could develop it and move it forward toward meeting our respective and our joint community goals on greenhouse gas reductions. And, you know, we, Paul kind of went through sort of the history from there. You know, we're, we're very happy to be part of this coalition and to, to talk about how we can use this plan and it's just feels great to reach this milestone here with all of you and have this forum and to get feedback from from the community in this way as well. Thank you very, very much, all of you for being here and I'm looking forward to hearing your input as well. And I, do I pass it over to Bob now yes, sure. Thank you, man. So, my name is Bob Akolia and I'm the chair of the Pelham select board and we are the little guys in in this arrangement. It would be wonderful to be working with Amherst in North Hampton, because something like this would be unattainable for a community of 1100 people, which is what we are up the hill from Amherst in Pelham. We are really looking forward to hearing what we were going to hear tonight. Thank you both Paul and Gina that, you know, this has been a while in the in the making I can remember when I was first elected as a select board member five years ago. It was already being discussed here in Pelham and I something Amherst in North Hampton as well. So here we are today and it couldn't be more timely, I think that we're all aware of the way electric rates have been very volatile. In the last couple of years, we're also aware and much more aware of the source of our electricity. And we are all committed to wanting to make that source greener and reduce the carbon footprint of our homes our communities and our governments. So, I'm really looking forward to hearing this presentation tonight, and also coming from folks who are participating with their questions. So thank you for for this evening. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Paul, Jean Louise and chair Guglia really appreciate your, your remarks and with that I don't I do want to just once again go over the format for the evening that we are not going to have a presentation from mass power choice to the patent and Paul Gomer. And after their presentation, we would ask people to type your questions into the Q&A function that's at the bottom of your screen. I will read the questions and then they will respond to your questions. So, with that, I will hand it over to Marlena and Paul Gomer. Okay, I'll take it from here for for now. So hi everyone. Thank you for coming. My name is Marlena and I thought maybe first I would explain kind of who mass power choice is in this big picture because there are so many players when it comes to electricity and certainly with electricity aggregation so we are a consulting team and our role is to help valley green energy come into existence and then exist and so what does that mean. It means we're helping the communities to work together to do the planning that's required before a program like this gets set up. So we take the program through a regulatory review and approval process that's required. These programs are overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. So we take the all those planning documents and in the city and cities and the towns through that process. Then we provide electricity broker services meaning we will help the communities to go out and get competitive prices from the marketplace for electricity supply and for renewable energy. And then we will make sure that the program gets launched and manage the program on an ongoing basis and provide customer support. We provide support for education and outreach and public information. We make sure that the electricity supplier sticks to its contractual obligations and we help the program remain in regulatory compliance on an ongoing basis so we're kind of in it for the long haul. So this is kind of our first introduction to you guys and we're delighted to be here to help. So I'm going to share my screen now. And I'll repeat a little bit of what folks said about what this program is. But this presentation will hopefully make it a little bit more clear. So let's see. All right, does that look. Does that look good. I hope. Yes. All right, thanks definitely. All right, so here's the cover page, an introduction to valley green energy and electricity program from and for the communities of Ambrose Northampton and Pelham. I'm reading what you can see clearly. The important thing here to know is that this is a community based program. This is not a private program that's being imposed from outside the communities. This is something that's coming from the communities for the communities. So why are we here. I've mentioned that this program has to go through a regulatory review and approval process. And as part of that, you have to create some program documents the key one being something called an aggregation plan. This document is a governing document that lays out at a very high level, how valley green energy is going to work, and how it's going to meet regulatory requirements. These documents include details like price or renewable energy content, or when the program is going to launch or who the electricity suppliers going to be. Those details cannot be determined until much farther down the road, after we get regulatory approval, and the communities can go out to the marketplace and get prices to see how much the electricity and renewable energy will cost. So it's a high level document, but it's the key governing document. And that is a document that we need to get public comments on or we need to make available for public comments. So what we're doing this evening is a required regulatory step is making this aggregation plan and some associated documents including an education and outreach plan and exemplary materials and model contract, those all are available now for public comment and review. But this evening's presentation is really focused on the aggregation plan because that's the key document that governs how everything works. Now that document is written really for regulators. And that's written for the public. So this presentation takes the meat of that document, and organize, excuse me organizes it in a way that's a little easier to follow. As it says on the slide public comments are accepted until the end of the month, and information about how to submit them if you are not going to offer any comments this evening will be available at the end of this presentation. So what is valley green energy. Well, it's a municipal electricity aggregation program, which is a mouthful of words. And if that leaves you as confused as the dog in the slide appears to be. You can think of it as a form of group electricity purchasing because that's really what it is. It's also a municipal alternative to all the electricity marketing that we all get in the mail over the phone and even sometimes door to door. So why would anyone want to participate in this. Some of you may already know but I'll go ahead through it. So a big benefit is cleaner electricity. When a city or town goes out to buy electricity and uses the group purchasing power of the community. As part of that, they can request the inclusion of additional renewable energy they can determine the makeup of the electricity the source of that electricity. So when you participate in valley green energy, you're going to automatically receive more of your electricity from clean renewable sources than if you didn't participate in it. Another big benefit is competitive and stable electricity supply prices so this really makes the program different than when you have your utilities basic service. So basic service is what you have when you kind of open your electricity account and then you don't make any decisions about your electricity supplier you don't sign a private contract with anyone, and you don't participate in the municipal program like valley green energy is going to be those utility prices change every six months or less and this winter we all saw them swing very very high. Valley green energy is going to be able to sign a long term contract that will provide price stability for longer than six months. The term we don't know yet that's going to be something that's decided down the road. Once those prices are seen, and we can see what term makes the most sense for the communities. Valley green energy is going to be longer than six months and that price stability means that when you participate in a program like this, you're protected from those seasonal winter price spikes like we saw this year. Now another potential benefit is the potential to pay less than you would if you were with the utilities basic service price so a little bit of savings. It's important to note that while savings are definitely potential, we can't ever guarantee them. And that's because those utility prices, the basic service prices are changing every six months or less as I said and we don't know what the future prices are going to be. So we just can't ever guarantee that the programs always going to provide a lower price. Another big benefit is consumer protections. Now this is something that really sets valley green energy and programs like it, apart from those private electricity supply offers. When you sign a contract with a company yourself you're responding to something you got in the mail or over the phone, you're signing a contract that was developed by that company to protect itself. If you participate in a program like valley green energy, the cities and towns sign a contract developed by them with consumer protections. They're not signing a contract developed by the electricity supplier. Achieve consumer protection is the ability to get out at any time with no fee or penalty. And that's quite different from a lot of the private contracts that will offer a very competitive price. In order to get it, you have to commit to being with them for a certain period of time and then you pay a high penalty if you leave. There are also protections around what the suppliers can and really primarily can't do with your consumer information. So one thing I like to always get out at the beginning of a presentation like this is to clarify that valley green energy is not going to replace ever source or national grid as your electric utility. In fact, there is no replacing ever source or national grid as your electric utility. They have geographic monopolies. So ever source is the electric utility for Amherst and Pelham national grid is for Northampton, and that's not something that you can change. When you live in the community, you get the utility that you get, and they are responsible for delivering your electricity they own the poles and wires and the infrastructure, no matter what. But what you can control is your electricity supplier, meaning who's buying electricity and dumping it on the grid for you. And that's what valley green energy is about. So it can help to understand that there are really three ways for a consumer to buy electricity in Massachusetts. The first is what I mentioned before, which is utility basic service. That's when your utility ever source or national grid is buying your electricity for you so they're functioning as your electricity supplier. And that's what you have when you first open your electricity account, it's kind of the default situation. It's always available to us to go back to if you never made any other decision. You would be always on utility basic service, and that's the price that changes every six months or less that I mentioned before. The second option is as I said you sign a private contract with a commercial electricity supplier so when you do that, you're still a customer of your utility you're still getting your bill from them. But when they calculate the part of your bill where you pay for the electricity supply itself, they're going to use the price that you secured with that private company to calculate that part of the bill. And then the third option is your city or town signs a contract that you can benefit from with an electricity supplier. So that is what electricity aggregation is, and that's what Valley Green Energy is going to be. And in that case, again, your bill is going to come from ever source or national grid same as always. But when they calculate the supply part of the bill where you pay for the electricity supply itself, they're going to use a Valley Green Energy price, instead of their own basic service price. As part of that Valley Green Energy is going to be something called a green aggregation. So I mentioned back on this, excuse me the slide about why would you participate one of the big benefits is cleaner electricity. So that's where this is coming in an aggregation that is adding renewable energy in to almost everybody's electricity is called a green aggregation, where you're going to be automatically getting more clean renewable electricity than you would. If you were just getting your utilities basic service. So this is a visual picture of what I was just trying to describe. So before the program begins, your utility is providing you with two services, they're both delivering your electricity which they will always do, and also they're supplying it which is called basic service. So that's on the left and we see ever source and national grid under supply and delivery. And on the right we have the end user which is all of us. But with Valley Green Energy in place, we have pretty much the same diagram or same illustration with just a different color for the supply piece, but all the pieces are the same. And that's because we've added a different entity, providing the electricity supply, but you'll see in the middle the delivery still your utility and the relationship between your utility and you the end user is uninterrupted. So that means there's no interruption to the electricity flow or to the reliability or to their service. The change is only in the electricity supplier the company that's going out and buying electricity and putting it on the grid for you. Now, within the program itself, you will actually have choices and that's a big part of a municipal aggregation program like Valley Green Energy Valley Green Energy is going to have up to four choices. So I'll draw your attention first to the one on the far left. Number one, standard green that says auto enrollment, more renewable electricity than the minimum amount. So I've mentioned several times that through the program you're going to get more electricity than what is required or more electricity than you would otherwise automatically. So let's dive into what that means. And you should know that the state law requires all electricity that sold in the state to have a minimum amount of renewable energy in it. That minimum amount goes up a little bit every year. When Valley Green Energy buys electricity, they're going to buy a little more than the minimum amount. And the standard green option is what's going to be called the default, meaning it's the one that you're going to get. If you don't choose one of the other options. The program has to choose one that works that way. That's how all these program works. So the standard green is going to be the default. It's the one you get automatically if you don't make another choice. That's the one for sure is going to have more renewable energy in it. But at the specific amount we don't know yet. And that's, as I mentioned before, because we need to wait and see how much at all is going to cost, and that's going to be down the road, after we get regulatory approval and we can go out to bid. There are going to be other options though. So if you want all of your electricity to come from renewable sources there's going to be 100% green option that you can choose. That's going to cost a little bit more. Then there's the potential of having a local option, which you can also choose where again you get more renewable energy, but it all comes from very local renewable energy projects. So there's going to be something called a budget option, and that's an opt down option. So for that one, you're going to get the same electricity mix that you would be getting from your utility, meaning no extra renewable energy, just the amount required by law. So you'd be getting really the same mix from your utility, but you'd be getting a valley green energy price for it, and you get the long term price stability and consumer protections through the program. So those are the four choices, up to four choices you're going to have in the program. And then on the far right, you'll see the opt out option. So the important thing to know is you can always leave the program at any time, as I mentioned before with no fear penalty and if you do you can go back to your utilities basic service. And again there, you get the minimum amount of renewable energy required by law. With those four options in the program the price is going to be fixed for longer than six months that's that long term price stability I mentioned before. Again, there is the potential to save a little bit compared to the utility. It's not a lot. It's not going to buy you an island in the Bahamas, but maybe a little bit. We just can't guarantee it. And then as I said before, those utility prices are the ones that change a lot, and we're all hurting from this past winter. So what does this look like on your bill. Well, if you're an ever source customer. Here's your ever source bill and if you haven't looked at your bill recently because you've been paying electronically. I hear you that's me too. But the thing to know is it's just impacting your supply charge that means it's not impacting the delivery charge which is over here on the right. That's the where you pay that sorry that's the price you pay for ever source to deliver your electricity to maintain the poles and the wires it's also the part of the bill wherever source makes their profit. The supply charge they're on the left that's for the cost of the electricity use and that's the part of the bill that's going to be impacted by Valley Green Energy. It'll change the price that's used to calculate that part of the bill and importantly ever take ever source takes no profit from that part of the bill so they're really pretty neutral about whether or not you participate in Valley Green Energy or you don't doesn't matter to them. Now if you're a national grid customer. Here's what you see it's a very different bill. National grid the top of the bill starts with delivery services. And we want to skip all of that. So as I said, same with ever source bill. It's not the delivery part of your bill that we want to look at on the national grid bill the delivery part of the bill can be confusing because it has all these little line items all called out right up front. And people think that's part of the program you'll see energy efficiency charge renewable energy charge solar charge. None of that is related to Valley Green Energy those are all regulatory charges. And this is the part of the bill where you're also paying for national grid to deliver electricity, maintain the poles and wires and it's where they make their profit and you want to skip it and move to where it says supplies services, which is usually the bottom of the first page of the bill or the top on the back. That's where you pay for the supply charge. That's where you're going to see the program impact that, and then you'll also see the supplier name here on your bill and you'll see it on your ever source bill as well I just didn't have enough room on the screen to show you where you'll see the supplier name. Other than those changes though. You're going to see a change in the price and then you'll see the supplier name on your bill. You're not going to really see a lot of other changes that's one of the nice things about these programs is they're pretty seamless from a customer perspective, your primary relationship is going to remain with your utility as it is now. And they're going to still deliver your electricity same as always. You're still going to call them if the power goes out same as always. You're going to pay the bill, you're going to pay them, and that's the only bill you're going to receive you're not going to receive a separate bill as a result of participating in valuing energy is just integrated into your bill like I just showed you. And then importantly, if you or someone you know is eligible for a discount from your utility, like a low income discount, you're going to continue receiving that discount with no change. How do you participate? Well, it's pretty easy. And that's mostly because it's an automatic participation for most electricity customers. State law says all municipal aggregation programs have to work with an automatic enrollment model. That's not something that Amherst Northampton and Pelham can choose. What that means is anyone on ever sources or national grids basic service, meaning those who have not signed a contract with a private electricity supplier themselves. Anyone on basic service will be automatically enrolled at launch, but it's not going to happen without your knowledge it's not going to surprise you. You will receive a formal notification in the mail with before you're enrolled. That's an important thing to know. Now, if you get this letter, and you think this is still not for me, then you can opt out. As I said, you can opt out at any time. Now, the letter is going to have all the price information, it's going to have all the options in it, it will have the current utility basic service price. So all of that's going to be in there you have all the information you need and you'll have a full month to make up your mind about whether or not you want to participate. You will also be able if you want to try the program out, and then leave later if you want. So you'll always be able to leave the program you can either prevent yourself from participating in the first place, or you can try it out and change your mind later there's never going to be a penalty or fee for leaving the program. The information on how to do that will be available at program launch. So some common questions what if you have signed a contract with electricity supplier already when the program launches. I mentioned that the automatic enrollment model happens for is for people that are on utility basic service what if you're not. Well, you can still participate. You're just not going to be automatically enrolled, your contract will be honored the one that you signed that will be honored, you're not going to get a letter in the mail telling you that you're going to be automatically enrolled. But if you want to participate you are more than welcome to and it's going to be easy. You'll be able to do it just by filling out a web form with your utility information, or a quick phone call. So it's not going to be a difficult process. It's just not going to be an automatic one. Now what if you have solar panels or you participate in community solar and get credits on your bill or you get an incentive payments. There's going to be no change there. You can still get those credits or that payment and the program will not change how they're calculated. So you can participate in both you could be in Valley Green Energy and also participate in community solar and also get credits, like smart credits on your bill or net metering credits on your bill. No change to any of that. And as I said before, if you have a low income discount or someone you know does, again, there's no change you get that discount on top of your whole bill. So here's the timeline. It doesn't say the typical process typically takes more than a year and that's largely because of the big green bar in the middle which is the regulatory review process so just starting at the beginning if we look at the far left there's that yellow bar it says public vote so all the communities had to do a public vote to pursue aggregation that's the first step everybody has to take. And then the next bar is that blue bar that says aggregation plan development and public review, and that's where we are right now. So once we get through this process, the review public review period. And then we move into that green bar, which is the regulatory review process so we submit everything to the state regulators. They have been slow lately. And it's not because Valley Green Energy is going to be doing something particularly new or different or confusing for them, or that aggregation is new different or confusing. There are more than 170 communities that have already done this. So this is very familiar ground for state regulators. It's just their workload seems to be a bit much for them right now so it's a long process right now, but we'll get through it. Thank you. And we have an order in hand. We move to that second yellow bar. So that's when Valley Green Energy can go out to bid so will help Valley Green Energy communities go out to the market and get competitive price bids from electricity suppliers for renewable energy and for electricity. And decision will be made about the offer the bid that provides the best value for the program and the contract will be signed. A very, sorry, before I say more about that, then a contract will be signed and that's when we will know all the program details. That's when we know the price. We know the amount of renewable energy in each program option. We know how long the price is good for, and we'll know when the program is going to launch, but not till then. With that information in hand, then we move into an intensive public education and outreach effort. So that letter that I mentioned that you get in the mail that tells you you're going to be automatically enrolled. This is when it goes out. And this will be supported by public information sessions by press release by social media by various different outreach and education efforts. And you'll have 30 days to decide whether or not you want to participate in the program. And then those who do nothing, because it really is that easy, then get automatically enrolled at program launch, which is the final yellow bar. And then you see the price on your bill. So how will you get more information. Well, it's that dark blue bar we were just looking at down on the right side of the timeline. It's about six to eight weeks before the program launches is when all that public education all those details are available and we can start making them available to you. So I mentioned letters and announcements. There's also going to be a program website there actually is already a program website. There will be public information sessions and customer support and my company provides that actually so it's my colleagues and sometimes even me on the phone and answering email. I mentioned the website so there is a preliminary website that's available right now at the address you see there mass power choice calm slash valley green energy you can visit it today for some information on how aggregation works. There's an FAQ on there you'll see some of the diagrams that I used in this presentation. I mentioned about the program implementation process what the major steps are, and also you'll see a customer support form with a phone number and a web form so if you want to call or ask some questions you can do it that way too. So I mentioned at the very beginning that this whole thing is about making the aggregation plan and other documents available for public comment. So that comment period goes until the end of the month. If you'd like to see these documents, you can do that by visiting your city or towns website they're all available for download from the Amherst Northampton and Pellum municipal websites. You can also download them from mass power choice calm slash valley green energy. If you are not wanting to download them or cannot, you can view hard copies at the Amherst inspections office Northampton City Hall or Pellum town clerks office. You can get written comments. You can get that information on mass power choice calm slash valley green energy or on your city or town website, or if you'd like to submit comments in the comment part of this presentation in the zoom comment field, you are welcome to do that. This is my last slide so what I'm going to do is I'm going to stop sharing my screen so you see my face again. But then, before we end this, I will put this slide back up before the call ends, in case anybody wants to scribble anything down. And we can move into the Q&A and Paul and I will be delighted to to field your questions. Great. Thank you so much Marlena. A lot of information there I do have some questions. Some of them do ask about topics that were covered in the presentation but I think it bears repeating as sometimes people might have missed what they were most concerned or curious about so I will start with the first one which is who is responsible for negotiating the term price and electricity supplier. So we will work as an electricity broker to help the communities go out to the market and get competitive bids solicit competitive bids from electricity suppliers. The electricity suppliers will submit bids for different periods of time. And we will present those bids and provide a recommendation around what looks like it's going to provide the best value, but ultimately the decision is a Valley Green Energy decision, community decision. Great. And the next question is what oversight will community members have to ensure Valley Green Energy is representing our interests. Well, so now is a great opportunity for that to have some input. That's what this public comment period is really about. And then I think going forward, these are community programs and while we as consultants are supporting the program they're fundamentally administered by the community so I think making sure that you're in constant contact with your community representatives. They're the ones shaping the program. I think that's the way to do it. Thank you. I and next question. What mass CCAs have the most renewable energy and their energy supply. And which would be good to emulate sorry, that's a two part. So, um, so I will tell you like the highest amount is the city of Newton, which happens to be a community that we work with. They have right now an additional 62% in their defaults. They just announced a new contract that will begin at the end of the year that will have. I think a total of 95%, including the including the required minimum amount. So they're leading the state. But whether or not you want to emulate them really depends on how you want to balance renewable energy and cost and that's the decision that each community has to make. Each program has to make is what is the right balance of renewable energy and cost for their population. Great. And also from the same person what types of local initial greenhouse gas reducing projects might the three towns collaborate on once the CCAs launched. So, if you're thinking about the local option in the program I'm wondering if that's what inspired that question. So in that case that would be really about buying renewable energy certificates from existing renewable energy projects in the valley green energy territory. And I confess I don't know what all of those are right now it will depend on what's up and running and also who has wrecks that are available. Paul may want to offer some thoughts on that as well as he is far more well versed in the renewable energy world than I am. Sure absolutely so there are there are a few things we know you could do now and we're hopeful that more opportunities will become available for CCAs examples are this new Cambridge for example used money collected through their program to build a solar energy project in the city, and the output of that city goes to benefit the aggregation program. And the town of New Tuckett is paying to put solar on residents bills they have a solar incentive program, and one of the most promising opportunities is to have CCA program sponsored low income community solar programs where the low income members of the community would get bill credits as a result of electricity produced by a solar project chosen by the CCA program. And I believe this next one is more of a comment but I think if either you, Marlena or Paul could speak to this. We can already choose a supplier other than National Grid, often for several years, not six months, we can also look for suppliers that don't charge fees. We can terminate anytime and can look for companies that use renewable resources. Would you like to maybe talk about why this is as good or better. Yeah, I mean I'd be happy to offer a few thoughts there which number one is, all those things are absolutely true. And as an individual resident, you're free to choose another supplier if you'd like there's no obligation to participate in valley green and if you've or as Marlena explained earlier, if you've already chosen a competitive supplier, you won't be part of the opt out group for the program so you'll just continue in whatever supply contract that you chose. There are though, many reasons why communities are going forward with CCA programs, despite the existence of private offers. One is, although some of the private offers are good offers and create value offer value to customers. The majority of them don't. So what the Attorney General has found studying offers from competitive suppliers is that Massachusetts consumers as a whole are losing about $100 million a year, as a result of going with competitive suppliers. By contrast, customers in ag CCA programs are saving money compared to what they would pay otherwise. As Marlena explained, we could never promise savings for the future. But it has been the experience that in the vast majority of cases customers in CCA programs are saving money. The benefit is the environmental content provided so most CCA programs provide for their voluntary renewable energy only what's known as class one renewable energy the best that's available. Whereas none of the competitive suppliers are offering that level of renewable energy big numbers high percentages, but much lower quality renewables. So those are reasons why the aggregation programs create a lot of benefits, why communities are choosing to offer them, but absolutely as an individual you're free not to participate, and there certainly are other options for you in the market. And does the CCA provide a lower rate for low income households similar to low income rates in the state tariff. There's no low income rate through the program but the low income discount remains in place as I mentioned before so if you participate in the program and let's say you're getting a lower price through the program. You get that benefit and then on top of that you would then get the low income discount. So they can exist they can coexist. And I think you in part answered this next question but there is a second part to this question. We covered it in your slide presentation and you might actually even want to go back to the slide for this one but please discuss both the supply part of the bill and the part of the bill that is for delivery. Okay. Yep, I can share my screen. Do we know which bill ever source or national grid bill doesn't say which this is from someone from National Grid territory. Okay, let's look at that one then. Marlena for your benefit and answering I think it's correct Stephanie that that question is part of a question about the low income discount so I'm wondering if what the questioners wondering is how does a low income discount apply to these two different parts of the bill. Oh, well in that case. Yeah, it's a total percentage off the total bill. I don't think I don't have a bill that shows an R2 low income discount so showing my screen if that is the question showing my screen isn't going to help because the bill is not a bill that's for an R2 customer which is a low income discount. Okay, great. Great. And we'll move on. Any fundamental reason that the regulatory review needs to be so long. I thought in other states there is a 90 day maximum for the review. What can we do to change the year long review dynamic. Oh, well, if you could figure that out, you would make an awful lot of people happy. But that's the million dollar question is how to make it go faster. We don't we don't have an answer to that unfortunately, and we don't have a good reason for it. As I said before it's not because aggregation is controversial or new in any way at this point. What is that there are new commissioners that took their jobs or started their jobs last month, and one of them was a hearing officer back when aggregations only took four months to approve. So, we're very hopeful that because she was with the DPU when it was moving along a little faster she knows what that looks like. And everyone has very high hopes for these new commissioners that they will, they will create a change, but we don't yet have a timeline on that or we don't know what those changes will be yet with regard to what can we do. Yeah, that that's a tricky one. Paul do you have any thoughts for for what to say there. I think that there is there is legislation pending in Massachusetts would impose a 90 day requirement on CCA plan review, similar to what's in place in other states as the questioner mentioned to support for that legislation would be would be helpful. Yeah. And this is more clarification on the low income options but what if a low income consumer selects a more expensive option. Will they get the same discount but still receive more renewable energy. So the low income customer can choose any option in the program and get the price for that option and then the low income discount would be put on their bill it's a percentage off the total bill. And so the low income discount would be applied regardless of which program option they choose. Great. All right. Is price affected by the percentage of total population participating in Valley Green Energy options. The electricity suppliers will make a bid based on their estimates for participation and then that's their risk whether or not everybody opts out or everybody participates. The price will not change based on participation once the contract is signed the price is fixed for the duration of the contract period. How does the CCA relate to the climate action plans of each of the towns, and how can we ensure we maximize percentage of renewables locally. So I can talk about the percentage of renewables locally that was part of the one of the options that's in the program is this idea of purchasing renewable energy from local renewable energy projects so that is something that you can do through the program. And with regard to how it relates to the climate action plan by participating in the program. You reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your electricity use and then an aggregate. The community reduces its greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the program being in place which will typically move communities toward greenhouse gas reduction goals that are part of climate action plans, but you folks may want to talk in more detail about your specific climate action plans. The only way that this is definitely one of our goals is to actually become a CCA so that we can do exactly what you just stated Marlena so I don't think we need to go in depth for each community but I think if people have specific questions about community action plans from their communities, they could reach out to each of the staff members that are participating in this process. I have a question if someone has a contract with an independent supplier. Do they have to cancel the existing contract first before opting in. No, you don't. In general, you only need to sign up or enroll with a new supplier whether that's a private contract or participating in a program and the supplier through the program. The cost of signing up with a new supplier holds you out of whatever your existing contract is behind the scenes. What happens is the new suppliers sends a note to the utility and says, we're taking this customer, and the utility then sends what's called a drop notification over to your existing supplier so no you don't have to do that. We often recommend that people do drop with their old supplier if they're old suppliers charging them a lot of money though. That never hurts to just get out of a bad contract if you're not getting charged an early termination fee. What is the likelihood that there will be insufficient renewable energy available for purchase. What impact have these aggregations had on demand for renewables and for increasing the supply. All this is right up your alley do you want to talk a little bit about that. I'm sure absolutely so. It would be a wonderful thing if there were so many community choice aggregation programs choosing additional renewables that they bought up all the renewable energy that was available. I don't think we're quite at a point yet where we need to be concerned that that would happen so there will be renewable energy available. One question about what impact they have on demand is a really good one. One way to look at that is to compare the, the impact of the voluntary purchases through CCA programs to the state renewable portfolio standard requirements so the state requires that all electricity include a certain percentage of renewable energy each year. The incremental renewable energy from the CCA programs the voluntary amount increases that state requirement by about 10%. So it makes the overall demand for renewables 10% higher than it would be. And just based on principles of general markets, the more demand for renewable energy there is the more projects will be built to serve that demand. So the CCA programs are sort of accept in that way accelerating the development of new renewable energy projects, because it's a market dynamic it's not possible in most cases to say this particular project was built because of CCA programs. But we can say that CCA programs are increasing the overall demand for renewable energy by 10% a year now and that amount is increasing as more and more programs are coming online. Thank you, Paul. We'll basic R2 fixed service automatically transfer over. So a customer that is an R2 customer on utility basic service would be eligible for automatic enrollment in the program and would remain an R2 customer receiving the low income discount while in the program. I hope I hope that answered the question that sound like it answered the question. I think so. And I think this comment might be in response to the question of what can we do about moving the process along but I'll just read it and you can determine if you think so as well. What kind of comments are we expected to make. It seems that everything that can be decided has been. Are we supposed to lobby the regulators. Oh, with regard to this and the public comment the DPU is looking to see how the community feels about the program is the community and support of it is the community have concerns about it what are those concerns so this particular comment period is about the valley green energy aggregation plan and just how you feel about it. How can suppliers make bids if they do not know how many households will participate. At the time that we go out to bid they will know that once we get an order from the DPU will be able to go to the utilities to receive detailed information about each community's electricity needs. And that will include the account information, and we'll be able to provide that to suppliers so that they can make real bids meaningful bids. And just and just to build on that a little bit and it's also the case, customers will leave the program over the over time customers will join the program over time suppliers. Take some risk there. They know because there's been a lot of experience with CCA programs already that from that initial list that Marlena explained they'll know how many customers are in the automatic enrollment pool. From there they'll make their own estimates about how that number will change over time. And though if their estimates are wrong, that's their headache so they're committed to serve as Marlena explained earlier, whoever's in the program, if it's everybody, or if it's one person, they still have to serve it at the program price. I've been to Green Energy Consumers Alliance to pay extra on my national grid bill. Will I still be automatically enrolled in Valley Green Energy. Yes, so if you're making a separate payment to Green Energy Consumers Alliance, then that is something that you could continue doing if you wanted to. If you want to participate in Valley Green Energy. If you're on your utilities basic service while you're doing that. Paul you want to say something. I was just going to add I think the answer depends on whether you're an ever source customer. Oh, are they treated right right right this is one of those situations I didn't think there's was like that. Okay, yep, then in that case it may depend on your utility thank you Paul yes. You do become automatically enrolled national grid you don't right okay thank you Paul. I was thinking of a different program so yes. If you're a national grid community, as Paul said if you're a national grid national grid will treat this as a separate supplier, and you may need to opt out of it. In order to participate in Valley Green Energy. If you're an ever source customer, you can do both if you want to. As long as you're sitting on ever sources basic service you would be eligible for automatic enrollment. If you were simultaneously paying extra to Green Energy Consumers Alliance you could continue doing that or not at your, your leisure. I'm in this next question actually I can answer what position or person in North Hampton government is responsible for working with BGA and mass power choice. That would be Carol and mish who is the director of planning and sustainability. Next comment question. Have any small communities and mass taken on implementation of DSM programs possibly through a third party. So that the charge can go to the CCA to meet its own end user needs. Is it cost effective to do that versus the big utilities continuing with the status quo. So that's that's a really good question interesting question that's a question from someone who knows a lot about this so it is to provide some further background that is possible for programs like Valley Green Energy to take over the programs that the energy programs that the utilities run now so the utilities include a charge on the bill which goes to fund energy efficiency programs in almost every community the utility runs those programs, but it is possible for a program like Valley Green Energy to take that over to get the funds and then spend them so far in Massachusetts only one group of communities has taken over those funds it's a group on Cape Cod called the Cape light compact. They're the only ones doing it now will be interesting to see if that if that changes over time but they're the only they're the only ones who've done it so far. Will there be a single supplier or different suppliers for the four different renewable options. One supplier for the whole program. Well, so back up one supplier for the electricity. But the source of the wrecks can be from different places. For example, for the local option, the renewable energy certificates or wrecks that I'm referring to can come from very very local projects. Whereas for the standard default of the 100% green options maybe they wouldn't be quite so local. They can come from different places. But they're not coming from electricity suppliers I don't I'm just mentioning that in case that's what where the question is coming from the renewable energy certificates come from different places but there will be one electricity supplier for the program that will be purchasing electricity and purchasing wrecks. It's possible to create a small fund from income that grows over time, and can be used for greening the communities such as supporting consumers and upping energy efficiency in buildings. So the, the program, Paul do you go ahead you look like you're going to answer that one. Yeah. It is possible for the communities to collect a fund for the program that they can use for energy initiatives in the community. The caveat on that though is that the use of those funds have to be tied to the program, because it's collected through the program so the money has to go to the program. So that way that's usually been interpreted so far that means the funding can be spent on things like renewable energy projects that supply the program that's been approved, but things that are separate from that it's been more possible to get approval for because the link between the program and the expenditures is less direct. Can you explain the difference between class one renewable and the other renewables and how Rex fit into this. Yeah, so renewable energy can come from different kinds of different sources and different different. Different technologies, and also different vintages different ages of those technologies so an easy way to think about class one renewable energy projects is there typically wind solar small hydro projects that are quote newer built after 1998 or after. And what that means is it's a pool of projects that is able to continue to grow. There are also class two renewable energy certificates that are the same technologies but older projects before 1998 and that is a group that can't grow right you can't go back in time and build more old projects but you can build more new projects and so by purchasing class one renewable energy certificates, you create this market demand that Paul referenced earlier. You can create this demand for renewable energy by saying we want to buy more of these renewable energy projects that have this class one status and renewable energy developers are able to build more projects that will have class one that's a mechanism that specifically choosing to invest in class one renewable energy certificates as a way to continue to build demand for renewable energy. But to back up the question also asked how to Rex fit in. So a renewable energy certificate is is the long phrase for a wreck, and it's the way that you buy renewable energy. For every one megawatt hour of renewable energy that's generated it generate something called a wreck, which is this kind of currency. You can't direct the electrons from the wind turbine in Vermont to your house it's impossible to do that. But it is putting energy on the same grid that you're using and it's all commingled with everything else on the grid. In order to be able to say that the electricity you bought from the grid and used at your home is from that turbine. You have to buy the renewable energy certificate the wreck that was generated by that turbine, and that gives you the right to say you use the renewable energy that it generated, and not someone else. You are counted and managed by an independent central organization so there's no double counting no funny business. After you buy it it's retired nobody else can can buy it and claim the same, same renewable energy, and that's the mechanism for counting and buying and selling renewable energy so when the program is saying it's going to buy more renewable energy, it's specifically going to buy wrecks there's a little price premium that goes with them so you buy the electricity. That's commingled everything's on the grid all mingle together, and then you say, we're going to buy the wrecks from these projects which allows our program to say, of all that coming electricity on the grid. It's just this portion of the renewable piece of it and not this portion from fossil fuels. Okay, thank you. If a household has net metering is there any advantage or disadvantage of going with this program. It's completely independent from net metering and you can do both and I think it's great if you do both. So if you get net metering credits on your bill. That's going to help control the cost of your bill right. So that is something that happens. Say you have solar panels will use that as an example, although you can get net metering from community solar but let's say you have solar panels on your roof, and they're producing they're overproducing you're selling electricity to the grid you're getting credits on your bill, and it's keeping your bill down low. Those credits are going against their their offsetting the actual cost of electricity that you buy from the grid when your solar panels aren't producing like at night. Wouldn't it be nice if that cost that you were offsetting was a little bit lower. Wouldn't it be nice if that that energy that you were buying when you had to buy it was a little greener. That's where valley green energy is going to come in it's going to come into play when you have to buy electricity from the grid like at night when your panels aren't producing it's going to make that electricity greener. And hopefully it'll make the price more competitive. And then if that's the case, then those credits you're getting on your bill will go a little further. And they're both in there, a great complimentary strategy. You mentioned lower quote quality renewables. What is the measure of the quality of a renewable. They're not. I'm the one who you I'm the one who use that term, which is a very poor term to use so this is a very good question for for catching me out on that. And two things in mind when I was talked about the quality of renewables. One is the emissions associated with them. So, not all renewable energy is clean renewable energy. As an example, trash to energy is considered renewable by the state, but it's one of the dirtiest generating sources and as a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions so one measure of the quality is renewable energy is clean or not. A second measure of quality is whether it's renewable energy, the purchase of which creates a demand for new more new projects to be built. So class one renewable energy fits into that category. Other types don't Marlena for example mentioned Marlena mentioned for example class two renewable energy, which is projects built before a certain date. So the high renewable energy from them all day long, but it's impossible to create a demand for more so you're just buying up what's there. You're not creating a demand for something new. So the higher what I the term I use quality renewable energy is both clean, and the buying it can increase can increases a demand, which can be met by building more renewable energy. How will this affect solar and battery programs like net metering and connected solutions. How would affect the programs. How will this affect solar and battery programs like net metering and connected solutions. Well, it won't impact your net metering credits if the if the question is how will impact you as a consumer. It won't impact net metering credits at all. It works independently independent of any other program. It doesn't have an impact really on any other other program it works independently the only impact is it changes the price that's used to calculate the supply charge on your bill. And through the program, you have the assurance that more of the electricity that you're buying is coming from renewable sources than if you weren't. That's right. And other stat if you have a battery as well as it as a solar panels, the program's just going to affect you less because you're going to be more of the day you're going to be using electricity either directly from your solar panels, or electricity that was produced by your solar panels but stored in your battery, which you're using later so as Marlena said, the program doesn't affect those, the CCA program won't affect those programs, but people participating in those programs will have less interaction with the CCA because they're more self sufficient they're generating more of their own electricity because they're using it when they're generating it and then they're storing some to use it later. Yeah, what I always tell people is it really just impacts when you buy electricity from the grid. So in those moments, whenever they are the electricity that you're buying will be greener and it will be a value green energy price and otherwise it won't impact you. So the total amount of quality renewable energy, wind and solar is finite. Will Valley Green Energy know the details about the source of electricity for the company they choose. Yes, we will be able to get reporting on the sources of the racks that are purchased. Yeah. We can specify in advance so you can say, we only want wind from New England, for example, we only want solar from Massachusetts that Valley Green Energy can specify what it wants. Can other towns in the area join this program. That would be possible. That would be a decision for the core towns to make whether to open up the program to other towns but there's nothing structural that would prevent it. And I would say that I know that in the future, I'm sure we will be opening this program up. I think at this point, the three communities are initially submitting the application. But there is a plan to become a joint powers entity, which would certainly open up the possibility of other communities joining us in the future. Have you thought about setting up a CCA to address equity issues related to net metering and get it approved by the DPU. The renewable charge in the D portion of the bill is pretty significant. Could a CCA somehow leverage the value of members net supply and its contract for supply. So I'll say two things in response to this. First, to offer some perspective, Marlene and I do these presentations in communities all over the state. We never get such detailed sophisticated questions as we're getting from this group tonight. You, this area is really phenomenal. And this question in particular is a really difficult one. I'd have to think about it I don't have an answer off the top of my head but it's an interesting question to raise. What are the advantages of being a joint CCA. I can suggest a couple one that Bob mentioned actually in his earlier remarks which is that a very small community like Pelham would have it be very difficult for them to form a CCA on their own. But joining with neighboring communities with similar values, it makes this possible to smaller communities. The other advantage I think is it increases the opportunities to do innovative and creative things so the community the size of Amherst could do CCA on its own a community the size of North Hampton could, but together for the, the standard type of CCA, but to do really innovative things that's going to be harder and require a little bit more scale so things like having a product that's hyper local renewables from only from this area. I think that's something as an optional product that something would be much easier to do with a slightly larger than what you're going to get from being a joint program and then I think other, you know, other new and innovative things will come over time because you have both more half more size from different several communities together. And you also have the sort of combined power and energy of different communities thinking of different things you might like to do is nuclear energy considered green. Are there any nuclear plants left that are near enough to continue. These are that one too so different people have different opinions on that the state considers it green, but most CCA programs don't. So, in the extra renewable energy the voluntary renewable energy that CCAs are choosing to buy. None of them are buying nuclear, but the state does count the nuclear towards meeting its own green energy goals. And there are still some there is still some nuclear generation in New England but it's less than it used to be. I wonder if the utility transmission system cannot handle the renewable energy that CCAs have purchased. I am wondering how well equipped the utilities are to handle supply surges and reliability issues. I'll jump in there too. I mean this is another really good question which is in some ways it's bigger than CCAs it's whether the utility transmission grid can handle the amount of renewable energy that's being added because of CCAs because of state requirements and other things and it's a real challenge both you know in Massachusetts and New England and really across the country, trying to make the grid work with all this renewables because it wasn't really designed for this kind of this kind of generation so we'll need more transmission lines and other things in order to, in order to meet our climate goals and build as much renewables as we'd like so CCA programs like this are part of a much bigger problem. And though we're not anticipating problems for Valley Green Energy because of buying extra renewables I don't think we're at that tipping point where we're worried about not having power or brownouts because we had a quiet day with no wind blowing it I don't think we're done. My rooftop PV already produces more kilowatt hours than I use during many months, and I get a net generation credit on my ever source bill. If I sign up for a higher cost 100% renewables option with the CCA, what rate would be used for the net generation credit. Your net metering credit calculation is not impacted by the Valley Green Energy price at all its calculation is based on the utilities basic service price and that would continue to be the case whether or not to participate in the program. What about Northfield Mountain which is controversial due to impact on the environment of the river level changes. So there too that's something you know Valley Green Energy can decide whether you would in whether you're interested in purchasing the output of that project or not. If an energy supplier goes bankrupt and multiple towns get dumped with will the utility standard offer be able to absorb all orphaned households without rates skyrocketing. I'd say the answer to that is yes because the suppliers that supply the utility basic service and the way that works is the utilities ever source a national grid they go out to bid. They get contracts with big energy electricity companies who promised to serve the basic service load whatever it turns out to be at the price they've committed to so if that were to happen, it might cause some heartburn for those suppliers, but it wouldn't affect rates at least during the current basic service period. It might be helpful to explain that Texas Windwrecks would never be part of Valley Green Energy, they are not class one because they are not in New England. That's correct. And that that's again a decision that Valley Green Energy makes where the renewable energy comes from. How are CCA energy contracts integrated into the ISO New England energy grid coordination. So the suppliers of CCAs like all other retail electricity suppliers have to play to operate under the rules of the ISO and ISO New England has all sorts of rules they have to follow, and they follow that because they're supplying electricity, regardless of whether it's electricity for CCA or basic service or some other purpose. The rules are the same for everybody. You mentioned community solar and the answer about customer owned solar panels. Can community solar subscriptions be used in addition to getting electricity from VGA. Again, it's completely independent. If you participate in community solar you're likely paying one price and then in return you typically get credits that are greater than the value that you're of what you're paying. And you can you can still do that we have an awful lot of folks that do it. Community solar is terrific. We recommend people explored if they can. And again it's similar to what I was describing with, you know we have solar panels on your roof and you're getting credits on your bill if you're participating in community solar and you're getting credits on your bill and then also you're participating in valley green energy and you have a more competitive price and those credits are going to go a little further. You said that ever source can change its rates every six months. How long will rates be stable in this system. So, so with valley green energy, the price the contract will be longer than six months but we don't know the contract term yet. And that's because we haven't gone out to bid yet contract terms can determine the price. So a 12 month price can be different from a 24 month price can be different from a 36 month price so that's something that we'll know way down the road and we can go out and get prices. The communities are signing contracts between one and three years. So that's, that's the typical length for an aggregation contract, but the specific length that is for the valley green energy contract isn't something we can we can know now we'll have to wait and see how those prices come in and where the market looks at that time that we go out to bid. And I think there's just a few more questions. What percentage of the price of valley green energy is the cost of mass power choice service. How long will valley green energy be using mass power choice. So we take a small fee were paid the way an electricity broker is paid so it's a 10th of a cent per kilowatt hour embedded in the price. And right now we are, I don't know how long is our contract contract through your contract right we're engaged for three years right now. And then it will be up to valley green energy whether to continue with our services beyond that point. And, let's see. All this sounds too good. What do you think are the weaknesses of your proposal, what might keep you up at night about this. Well, I think it's what I do for a living I think it's a great program. So perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask about that but I can say why some people don't participate, if that's helpful to hear. So some folks don't like being reminded that their local government is making decisions for them. And so they don't like the automatic enrollment component of it some people are very uncomfortable with that. And so for that reason there's the ability to get out at any time certainly nobody should be forced to do anything that they don't want to do and that's an important component of the program. Some folks don't like the fact that a program like this can't and won't guarantee savings all the time. But that's just the reality of comparing a long term fixed price with a short term price that varies. If you walk in a contract if your point of comparison is a price that's changing all the time you don't know what the future prices are going to be there's always going to be some risk there. But again, that risk can be mitigated by the fact that you can leave the program at any time if you feel like you're not getting a good deal. And as Paul said, the, the history so far has been that most communities are able to provide some amount of savings for their participants and it can't be guaranteed and it won't buy you the island in the Bahamas you're hoping for. I wish I wish it did. It won't, but most communities are coming out ahead. But, but that uncertainty makes people nervous the automatic enrollment makes people nervous. But otherwise, most people in most communities do participate in them. And I think history has shown that that they're helpful programs but it really is up to everybody to do what they feel comfortable with. Great. And I think this is a perfect way to end our Q amp a it's not a question. It's a comment great presentation no question. So I think that's a perfect, a perfect ending. I'd like to first thank Pelham select chair Bob goglia Amherst town manager Paul Backelman and North Hampton Mayor Gina Louise Sharon. I completely failed to introduce myself at the beginning of this presentation. I'm Stephanie Ciccarello and I'm the director of sustainability for the town of Amherst. We want to put that slide up one last time just so people can see the, the information on how to contact us if they have questions. But I would direct folks who watch this presentation to please encourage others to watch it as well it is for being recorded. It will be available in each municipalities website all of our information can be found on the main page there's a link to the belly green energy on each community's website. So I encourage you to go there as well. Here's the information also. I want to thank everyone for your attendance for your incredibly wonderful questions. Very high level questions, and especially Marlena Patten and Paul Gomer from mass power choice. You're a joy to work with and thank you so much for this incredible presentation. So we want to thank everyone for joining us and with that I think we will sign off and hope to hear from you all soon in support of the program. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening.