Community Power Status Report

Last July, attendees at Hanover’s Town Meeting voted to adopt the proposed Electric Aggregation Plan (EAP) to establish Hanover Community Power, a town-wide municipal electricity aggregation.  Adoption of the EAP enabled Hanover to begin working with the Community Power Coalition of NH for the procurement of 100% green power for Hanover “retail” (residential and small business) electricity customers. 

CPCNH formally incorporated on October 1, 2021 with 13 member cities and towns, including Hanover and Lebanon.  As of April 15, 2022, 20 communities are members of CPCNH, including the cities of Nashua, Dover and Portsmouth.  Each member community has appointed one representative and one alternate to serve on the CPCNH Board.  Currently, Hanover Sustainability Director April Salas represents the Town of Hanover and Public Works Director Peter Kulbacki serves as an alternate member.  In addition, April Salas served as Chair of the CPCNH Board during the first 6 months of operation, from October 1, 2021 through April 21, 2022.   The CPCNH Board has worked diligently over the past 6 months to set up this new organization, retaining professional consulting assistance, organizing the work via five key operating committees made up of Board members, preparing to hire CPCNH’s first Executive Director, fundraising, and planning for the initial purchase of green power on behalf of all the retail customers residing in each of the 20 member communities.  Several additional communities around the state are also contemplating membership in CPCNH and Board members are actively providing outreach to other communities as they inquire about participation in the Coalition.

CPCNH is now waiting for the NH Public Utilities Commission to adopt operating rules for municipal electricity aggregations in NH.  Sadly, draft rules were submitted for adoption in early 2021 but have been stalled before the PUC.  The lack of at least two Commissioners, combined with the disassembly of the former PUC staff structure with the creation of the new NH Department of Energy in the fall of 2021, led to a period of complete disfunction at the PUC for almost 6 months including an inability to take-up the electric aggregation rules.  CPCNH cannot move forward until the rules are formally adopted, which will then enable member communities to submit their adopted Electric Aggregation Plans for formal approval by the Commission.  It is hoped that all of this will occur during the summer of 2022.

Once the municipal aggregation rules are approved and individual community EAPs are adopted by the PUC, CPCNH plans to go out for bid to purchase green power on behalf of member communities in the spring of 2023.  Spring is the optimal time to seek bids for wholesale electricity which is why the Coalition plans to wait for the 2023 launch. Several weeks prior to the Coalition’s purchase of green power next spring, all Hanover retail electricity customers will begin to receive updates and, ultimately, pricing for the green power product so that if any customers prefer to opt out of Hanover Community Power and continue purchasing either Liberty default power or power from an alternative competitive energy supplier, they will be able to do so.