Agenda Text
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Conveying information about exploring Electricity Community Choice Aggregation for Somerville.
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Official Text
To the Honorable Board,
I have instructed my staff to begin the process of exploring Electricity Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) for Somerville.
CCA is a voluntary opt-out system that would consolidate electricity demand in Somerville and allow the City to enter into an agreement with a supplier that provides lower costs and/or a greater percentage of green energy than the current status quo. Eversource would remain the distributer; customers would continue to be billed through Eversource; and customers could opt-out with no penalty at any time.
Advised by the Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change (CEUCC) and City staff, I have formed a community task force to explore CCA for Somerville and recommend next steps. The task force’s members are:
Andrea Ranger, CEUCC member
Vanessa Boukili, CEUCC member
Mark Neidergang, Somerville Ward 5 Alderman
Toni Whitmore, Somerville resident and Mothers Out Front member
Jarod Pierce, Somerville resident
Samantha Joseph, Somerville resident
Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Director of Sustainability and Environment
The task force is also supported by members of my Office and the City’s Purchasing Department. In addition, the task force and staff are receiving technical support from the Clean Energy group of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), which has worked on this issue with other municipalities in the area.
The task force and City staff will work over the next few weeks, with the objective of coming to the Board of Aldermen to present findings and recommendations and potentially request authorization for the creation of a an aggregation plan. It is anticipated that the aggregation plan and a substantial portion of the technical work will be completed at no cost to the City by an energy broker/technical consultant. MAPC will provide assistance with the non-binding selection of a broker/technical consultant.
My staff is available to answer any questions you may have.
Respectfully submitted,
Joseph A. Curtatone, Mayor