“I am excited about our city’s recent launch of Nashua Community Power, and I take great pride in our city team who worked so hard to get this game-changing program going. The Nashua
Community Power program allows our municipality – instead of Eversource, our traditional utility company – to purchase electricity on behalf of our residents. With this new system, we
have the opportunities for reduced electricity costs and a more renewable energy system. We launched with lower rates than Eversource, and I can report that the typical Nashua energy user
is already saving money through participation in Nashua Community Power. For example, with the program’s “Granite Basic” power option, the electric rate is currently 10.9 ¢/kWh compared
with the Eversource rate of 12.582 ¢/kWh. In addition, the program offers an array of plans giving customers the choice to buy up to 100% renewable energy.”
~ Mayor Jim Donchess
Nashua Community Power – A Few More Details
- The cost of electricity and price volatility have long been problems for New Hampshire residents.
- In 2019 state law changed to allow New Hampshire cities and towns to adopt community power programs, which let local governments purchase electricity on behalf of their residents. The local utility companies would still be the entities that deliver the electricity and handle billing and other services. In other states, similar efforts have helped ratepayers save money and develop more renewable energy systems.
- Following the passage of the New Hampshire enabling legislation, Nashua joined 16 other cities and towns as a member of the New Hampshire Community Power Coalition. Our energy staff worked hard and became experts on the community power approach. The city also formed an Aggregation Committee of interested citizens and the Aldermanic President to study and recommend community power for Nashua.
- With community power programs, the combined buying power of local residents and businesses can achieve competitively priced electricity. For example, these programs can purchase electricity on more flexible schedules than the traditional utilities, or they can sign longer-term contracts with power generators.
- Although nearly everyone has been enrolled in the Nashua Community Power “opt-out” program at its start, residents can switch back to the utility for their default electricity supply at any time, or they can take their business to some other competitive electricity supplier.
- Under our new system, the utility still handles delivery and billing for Eversource customers, while the “Supplier” charge on the bill we receive from the utility is the Nashua Community Power component.
