Community Power Aggregation

Community Power Aggregation for the Town of Exeter

By Camille Webber

What is Community Power?

Community power is a method of receiving electricity from third parties for the town or municipality. The process is a competitive process because the town chooses parties are supplying the energy. According to Henry Herndon in an article by NHBR, “By bypassing outdated regulations and legacy technologies, community power programs can harness private sector innovation to lower costs for their customers and provide other energy services. Electric distribution utilities continue to deliver the electricity over their poles and wires.”

What benefits does this energy plan include?

In a meeting of the Exeter Energy Committee, Bob Hayden of Standard Power came to discuss community power aggregation, and he mentioned many of the benefits of using this method for supplying energy. Some of these benefits include local control of where the municipality’s energy is coming from, options to include renewable energy sources such as solar or wind, innovative local programs, as well as education on what community power does to help the town and the environment at the same time. 

How are citizens incorporated into this process?

Citizens are involved in almost every aspect of this type of energy plan. They would take surveys, attend meetings, and make their voices heard. The entire point of an aggregation plan is to incorporate citizen choice into how energy is being provided to them. 

What is Exeter’s process?

The town of Exeter has just begun their process in making an energy aggregation plan. They recently started a Community Power Aggregation Committee with two members of the Energy Committee and two experts in energy and community power. They are working with Community Power Coalition of NH to formulate a plan to bring forward to the voters later in their process. The committee will have to go through many steps before a plan like this gets approved; but when it is put into action, the citizens will be opted in to the program automatically—they would have to opt themselves out of the program if they do not wish to participate. Energy aggregation is a great step for the town of Exeter to work on its energy efficiency goals!