Community choice energy aggregation (CCE) programs are energy procurement programs adopted by about 170 municipalities across Massachusetts, one of only eight states across the country to have enacted CCE legislation (Electric Restructuring Act, 1997). CCE programs allow local governments to aggregate the electricity loads of residents, businesses, and municipal facilities to procure a competitive supply of electricity. Potential benefits of CCE programs include savings for consumers (i.e. lower prices) and incentives to boost innovation and local economic development related to renewable energy technologies. Moreover, CCEs may generate positive environmental externalities; by choosing their electricity supplier, municipalities may, for instance, increase the proportion of renewable energies in their energy mix and contribute to climate change mitigation.

This study examines opportunities and challenges associated to CCE programs, the original goals motivating the adoption of CCE programs by MA municipalities as well as the self-reported challenges and benefits associated to their implementation. We also examine to what extent CCE programs contribute to local economic development related to renewable energy programs and whether the programs fulfil their potential toward climate mitigation.

Research team: 

Lead author: Marta Vicarelli - Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and School of Public Policy - Contact: Dr. Marta Vicarelli <mvicarelli@econs.umass.edu>

Contributing authors (all bios are available here): 

• Ajay Dawani, undergraduate student, Resource Economics '22

• Emily Laus,  undergraduate student, Department of Physics and Chemistry '23

• Nihal Warawdekar, graduate student, Resource Economics '23

Ajay Dawani (UMass ’22) contributed to this work while he was a students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Ajay Dawani’s work was supported by the Economics Undergraduate Research (EURA) Fellowship program, under the supervision of Professor Vicarelli. Ajay Dawani’s contribution to this research was also supported by the LeBovidge Undergraduate Research Award, a fellowship awarded by the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and completed under the supervision of Professor Vicarelli.

Research assistants:

• Melissa Sun, Department of Economics

• Saniya Jain, Department of Economics and Computer Science

We would like to thank past research assistants Zachary Ettridge, John Stevenson, Thomas Roberts, Max Ball, and Kiyoshi Dee who contributed to data collection and management for this research project, as part of their University of Massachusetts - Department of Economics Undergraduate Research (EURA) Fellowships, under the supervision of Professor Vicarelli. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of students Christopher Supple (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Ella Steciuk (Amherst College) for their excellent research assistantship. Ella Steciuk’s work was supported by the Amherst College Internship Fellowship program, under the supervision of Prof. Vicarelli. 

Our gratitude also goes to YuYa Htut Tin for her generous feedback and technical support during the development of graphics and figures for this report.

Acknowledgements

This research is possible without the support of the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the School of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

We are very grateful to all the Massachusetts municipal officials who participated in our interviews and focus groups, and those who completed our online survey.

We are grateful to former School of Public Policy (SPP) students David Wasielewski, Cobi Frongillo, and Jiawei Liu for supporting the early stages of a data collection effort that contributed to inform the design of this research. In spring 2019 they took part in the 2019 SPP Workshop course, under the supervision of Professor Vicarelli. The purpose of the course, designed to provide real world consulting experience to students, was to investigate the outcomes of Community Choice Energy Aggregation (CCE) programs in Massachusetts. Our thanks go to Local Power, LLC for participating as a model “client” in the SPP workshop for our students to complete their student project. 

This research is not supported by private funds and the authors declare no competing interests.