Cape Light Compact Announces Winter Electric Pricing

SOUTH YARMOUTH – The Cape Light Compact has set electricity prices for its green aggregation power supply program for the next six-month term, beginning on December 2018 meter read dates and ending on June 2019 meter read dates.

The new pricing for the upcoming term will continue to provide cost savings to customers against the utility’s basic service pricing and support renewable energy resources.

“In December and June of every year we announce our price changes. Unfortunately, we continue to see these seasonal prices swing that all of New England is subject to due to the natural gas pipeline constraints,” Senior Power Supply Planner Austin Brandt explained.

“Every six months the Compact’s price for its residential and small commercial customers changes to stay in line with price of the regional energy market and shifting market forces.”

The Compact is also announcing that NextEra Energy Services of Massachusetts was selected to continue providing service to the Compact’s power supply customers as a result of a competitive solicitation undertaken by the Compact earlier this year.

Alongside the Compact’s agreement with NextEra Energy Services, the Compact will also purchase both renewable power and renewable energy certificates (RECs) from a solar farm currently under development in Farmington, Maine.

Since December 2016, the Compact’s green aggregation power supply program has supported renewable resources by matching all customers’ electricity usage with renewable energy certificates (RECs), by purchasing RECs from New England-based projects above Massachusetts state requirements, and by helping to finance new renewable energy projects directly through the EarthEra Renewable Energy Trust, including a solar farm in Vermont.

This power purchase agreement, solicited and selected as part of the competitive power supply request for proposals, will take the Compact’s support for renewable energy one step further by directly helping to finance the construction and operation of a new renewable energy facility in New England.

Since the Compact’s implementation of its green aggregation program, the Compact has been able to maintain lower residential pricing than the local utility while exceeding the mandated Massachusetts Renewable Portfolio Standard.

The Compact’s new commercial rate for December 2018 through June 2019 meter read dates will be 13.299 cents per kWh and the industrial rate for the period of December 2018 through March 2019 meter reads will be 16.299 cents per kWh.

“Every customer’s bill has two main portions: There’s the delivery portion and the supply portion. So, Eversource is the electric distribution company and they provide those delivery services,” Brandt said.

“The charges on the delivery side of the bill are going to go to Eversource to pay for the cost to maintain the poles and wires that deliver the electricity to your home or business. The supply portion of the bill is the portion the customer has control over because they can choose who they want to supply their electricity.”

The increase in pricing as compared to the Compact’s current rates is due to higher New England-wide market electricity prices during the winter months, which all retail suppliers purchasing power from the market are subject to. 

When facing higher electric bills due to these regional winter price spikes, the Compact always reminds customers to look for ways to save energy to reduce their bills by using less kilowatt-hours.

The Compact also plans to roll out a new, opt-in power supply option in January that will allow customers that choose to pay a little more to get up to 100% of their electricity usage matched with RECs from local New England-based renewable energy facilities.

The program is still under development, and the Compact will announce more details early next month on pricing, REC sources, and how to enroll.

By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center

  

 

 

 

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