Boston to launch community choice electricity program in February

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 14, 2020

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh on Dec. 4 announced a series of milestones in the development of the City of Boston’s community choice electricity program, which will officially launch Feb. 1, 2021 and will be the largest municipal aggregation program in New England.

Boston has contracted with Constellation NewEnergy Inc. as the supplier and will offer three product options for customers.

“Designed as an opt-out program, CCE offers customers flexibility in their electricity choices without any change in delivery or any contractual commitments,” the mayor’s office said.

Investor-owned Eversource offers city residents a default electric supply option called basic service. The City of Boston recently began sending notices to residents on Eversource basic service. Those residents will be automatically enrolled in the program unless they actively choose to opt out.

The CCE effort is a key strategy in the city’s Climate Action Plan to lower emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Walsh’s office noted.

Boston’s CCE program will offer the opportunity for more than 20,000 low-income customers to receive meaningful discounts on their electricity costs through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program.

The City of Boston has partnered with NextGrid Inc. which will build 100 megawatts of new solar PV modules within Massachusetts. When completed, the incentives from the new solar projects will result in an estimated $72 annual savings for the average low-income household, and more than $28 million over 20 years.

The city is seeking to contract with other developers for more solar energy capacity to increase low-income customer savings and spur job creation. 

Additional information about the CCE program is available here.