New Prices and Increased Support for Local Renewable Energy Coming for Swampscott Community Power
Swampscott Community Power, Swampscott’s town electricity program, is increasing its commitment to buy renewable electricity from the New England region starting in November. At the same time, the program will offer new prices that will be lower than National Grid’s proposed winter residential Basic Service price and also lower for most program participants. The changes will go into effect in November, as the program’s current electricity supply contract with Direct Energy ends and a new three-year contract with NextEra Energy Services begins.
Swampscott Community Power has already made a measureable impact on the town’s efforts to fight climate change. The program provides 100% renewable electricity to most program participants. From program launch in 2016 through the end of October 2021, participants in Swampscott Community Power will have together purchased more than 210,000 MWh of electricity from renewable sources instead of fossil fuels. This community-wide effort has resulted in more than 130 million pounds of CO2 emissions avoided, which is equal to avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions of passenger cars driving more than 148 million miles.
“Through Swampscott Community Power and Swampscott’s Renewable Energy Committee’s leadership, we have taken big steps toward our climate goals while providing benefits like price stability that helped Swampscott rate payers save more than $650,000 in electricity bills.” said Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “With this new three-year contract, we are working to strengthen our local impact by buying locally. By locking in prices for the long term, we can continue to protect Swampscott rate payers and tax payers from big utility price swings, like the upcoming winter price increase from National Grid.”
The increase in local renewable electricity will apply to the Standard Green offering, which is the default program offering and the one that most participants are enrolled in. Standard Green provides 100% renewable electricity that is primarily generated outside of New England, with a smaller amount generated within the New England region. Previously, the amount generated within New England included the minimum required to meet state law plus another 5% added voluntarily by Swampscott. Beginning in November, that additional voluntary amount will triple from 5% to 15%. Even with this change, the price for Standard Green will fall slightly from 11.444 ¢/kWh to 11.406 ¢/kWh.
Prices for the other two program options, both available by request, will also change:
New England Green provides 100% renewable electricity all from within New England. The price for New England Green will increase slightly from 13.499 ¢/kWh to 13.593 ¢/kWh to reflect the rising cost of renewable electricity.
Basic includes only the minimum amount of renewable energy required by state law. The price for Basic will fall from 11.244 ¢/kWh to 10.603 ¢/kWh.
All three program prices are below National Grid’s proposed six-month winter residential Basic Service price of 14.821 cents/kWh, which goes into effect on November 1. It should be noted that, during the course of the contract with NextEra, National Grid’s Basic Service prices may at times be lower than the Swampscott Community Power price. Because future National Grid prices are not known, savings compared with National Grid’s Basic Service prices cannot be guaranteed.
The new prices will be fixed until November 2024. All active program participants in Swampscott Community Power will automatically be enrolled into the new contract with NextEra to receive the new prices with their November 2021 meter read. Participants will be enrolled in the same program option they have under the current contract. Participants will first see the new program price on their December 2021 National Grid electricity bills.
More information is available at on the program website or from customer support with the town’s program consultants at 1-844-483-5004.