Community Power Outperforms Expectations
Recent news from the Community Power Coalition of NH (CPCNH) contained some surprises. Community power programs, including our own Hanover Community Power (HCP), are surpassing expectations held in April 2023 when Hanover launched as one of ten communities in the first wave of CPCNH programs. Over the first 16 months, HCP customers saved $643,000 compared to what they would have spent for utility supplied electricity. The corresponding number for our neighbors in more populous Lebanon was an astonishing $1,658,000. And for big city Nashua, the number was $5,479,000! Not surprisingly, CPCNH is growing rapidly. Its statewide membership total is now 75 communities representing 170,000 customers.
For Hanover, as for many of the other communities, community power is about savings and about giving customers easy, reliable access to renewable energy. For the 36 CPCNH communities that had launched by August 2024, HCP topped the list for customers choosing CLEAN 100 for its 100% renewable content. Hanover was at 4% for CLEAN 100, followed closely by Harrisville (3.8%) and Lebanon (3.7%). Sustainable Hanover encourages all HCP customers to visit the Electric Supply section of www.communitypowernh.gov/hanover to consider joining CLEAN 100. For 2023, renewable content for all HCP plans except GRANITE BASIC was supplied by renewable energy certificates (RECs) from wind and small hydro generators in New Hampshire and Vermont.
There was an unexpected twist with NH’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that reduced the amount of renewal content for most of the electricity supplied in the state. RPS is the state law that requires electricity providers to purchase RECs to cover a percentage of the electricity they sell. In March 2024 the NH Department of Energy agreed with some utilities and suppliers that RECs in one of four RPS classes were not available in sufficient amount for them to satisfy RPS requirements. The Department decided to waive that class requirement for 2023. This had the effect of lowering the overall RPS requirement from 23.4% to 15.9%. This was not the first time NH has taken this action. The ruling did not affect the renewal content for HCP customers with CLEAN 100, CLEAN 50 or the default GRANITE PLUS plan; their renewable content percentages were unchanged at 100%, 50% and 33% respectively. However customers in GRANITE BASIC (along with customers who opted out of HCP to remain with their utility) received lower renewable content, because those plans are designed to track the RPS.
Finally it is disappointing that there is still as yet no good news for net metering owners to join HCP. The PUC has not resolved the impasse with the utilities on data sharing to service net metering and load settlement accounts. This is a top priority issue for CPCNH. They are working at the state level to solve the problem.
Questions about HCP? Contact sustainablehanovernh@gmail.com
