When Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) was enabled by New York’s Public Service Commission (PSC) in 2016, CCA already had a long history in the United States, beginning with a group of municipalities in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, that came together to form the Cape Light Compact in 1997. Today, CCA exists in nine states serving over 1,500 municipalities and 30 million people. From New York’s first CCA in Westchester County (Westchester Community Power), the model has now spread to more than 100 municipalities in New York.
Kingston is working with Mid-Hudson Energy Transition, a non-profit organization focused—as the name suggests—on helping municipalities achieve a broad energy transition with CCA as the central strategic tool.
CCAs in other states, for example Massachusetts and California, offer energy programs that include demand reduction (reducing residents’ and businesses’ energy usage) and investments in renewable energy generation, battery storage, microgrids, and other distributed energy resources both in front of and behind the meter. In New York, the first CCAs adopted a relatively narrow focus on securing supply at fixed, stable rates, with some municipalities choosing to source 100% renewable power as the default option. In 2019, the PSC allowed New York CCAs to include community solar on an opt-out basis, extending the benefits of supporting local renewables to residents and businesses. The Town of Marbletown is among the first CCA municipalities to take advantage of this relatively recent opportunity. Kingston expects to be one of the next.
To help municipalities in their decision-making about whether to join a particular CCA, CLP has compiled a list of recommendations, below, for elected officials and residents, as well as questions to ask CCA administrators soliciting their participation.
COMMITMENT TO CLEAN ENERGY
How will the CCA program being offered support the transition to a clean energy system?
Does the program support community renewable development?
Is there a guarantee that the power it supplies will not be “dirtier” than what the utility offers? Will it be greener than the utility supply?
BENEFITS OF JOINING
Because they can hedge in energy markets and have very large customer bases, New York utilities are able to secure a price for electricity supply in wholesale markets that is challenging to beat. To obtain 100% green supply, CCAs in New York can seek contracts that support renewable energy through the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). RECS do encourage the growth of renewable power generation in New York, but relying on RECS will come at a premium cost (though at less of a premium than if purchased by an individual customer), and does not directly support local renewable development.
Given the challenge of guaranteeing significant cost savings over the utility supply price, what other benefits are being offered through aggregation?
Will the CCA program support local investments in clean energy? If so, explain how.
ADMINISTRATION
In order for a municipality to join a CCA, a local law must first be passed. When this law is written, the goals of the CCA should be explicitly expressed. What does your municipality want to achieve through CCA? For example, it’s important for the local economy and resilience to encourage local clean energy investments through CCA. There should also be a longer-term goal of the CCA being administered locally rather than by a for-profit administrator. CLP recommends considering including the goal of encouraging local clean energy investments as well as local CCA administration (as opposed to relying on an out-of-region private consultant).
What’s the administrator’s percentage fee and what is that paying for?
What are the responsibilities of the municipality?
Will the Administrator help build capacity for local governments to eventually take on the responsibilities of administering the CCA themselves?