This month, Ashfield will become the newest community in the state to start a municipal aggregator electricity supply program. Residents voted in 2023 to allow Ashfield to purchase electricity in bulk from an Eversource competitor to stabilize electricity prices and increase the renewable energy in its supply.

Ashfield hired a consultant to “aggregate” 1,600 consumers in the town to negotiate rates for electric power supply. The town chose electricity supplier Direct Energy at a rate per kilowatt hour lower than Eversource Basic. Consumers can choose an “ultra green option” of 100% Renewable Energy Certificates for $15 more per month than Eversource Basic.

Municipal aggregation provides 1.27 million Massachusetts customers with electricity — including 19 communities in Franklin County. Greenfield Light & Power, for example, sources electricity from First Point Power of Rhode Island, which saves me 2.34 cents below Eversource’s kilowatt hour charge–$6 per month cheaper during the spring and summer, and $21 per month cheaper in the winter.

Even though municipal aggregation in Massachusetts was established in 1997 after passage of the Electric Industry Restructuring Act, very little local “restructuring” has taken place. A new Manual on Municipal Aggregation from the state Department of Energy Resources suggests that cities and towns “can collect funds through a rate component to finance and construct local clean energy projects. Municipalities could also consider owning their own systems using the IRS Investment Tax Credit Direct Pay program.”

Nine months ago, I asked Paul Fenn of Haydenville, the founder and president of Local Power LLC, if he would draft legislative language to push the aggregation movement deeper into local energy plant construction and ownership. Fenn helped write the original Massachusetts municipal aggregation statute while working as chief of staff of the Senate Energy Committee on Beacon Hill.

He also went on to write legislation in California, where municipal aggregation programs have built more than 20,000 megawatts of new renewables, with $35 billion in investments committed, and $15 billion in Green Bonds. Fenn says municipal aggregators seeking to build renewable generation systems have been short-circuited by state regulators and utility companies, which “discouraged local power as the best path to reducing carbon emissions.”

The municipal aggregator legislation that evolved from this discussion empowers municipalities, as energy facility permitting entities, to reduce the need for new grid resources in two ways: 1) by developing Distributed Energy Resources (DER) — like solar plus storage, and thermal heat loops in buildings for local on-site consumption communitywide; and 2) by expediting interconnect permits for customers of municipal aggregators that install DERs designed not to export power onto the grid. These are DERs in buildings that will use their energy on site.

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Currently, such systems are subject to the same process, costs and delays imposed on systems that use the grid. This legislation would exempt DERs that don’t need to feed power to the grid, and set up an expedited approval process so municipal aggregators can develop alternatives to mega-battery energy storage and transmission lines. “Nothing limits municipal aggregators’ ability to develop local renewable generation, like batteries or solar on residential, commercial or community buildings,” Fenn explains. “They are free to build local generation under local authority.”

The bill establishes a minimum timeline for the Department of Public Utilities to approve petitions by municipal aggregators to administer energy efficiency funds, which are paid by their residents and businesses. Only one aggregator — the Cape Light Compact — has accessed the energy efficiency funds their customers pay into. Cape Light is one of the top utilities selling renewables above state minimums.

The General Court has begun a two-year session. Sen. Paul Mark of the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire District, has filed as the lead sponsor of Senate Docket 2061, “An Act Enabling Municipal Aggregation.” We call it the “Local Power for Local People” bill. Sen. Jo Comerford of the Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester District, Rep. Lindsey Sabadosa of the 1st Hampshire, Natalie Blais of the 1st Franklin, and Susannah Whipps of the 2nd Franklin have signed on as co-sponsors.

Mark’s bill removes barriers to deployment of onsite renewable energy, and helps aggregators get access to energy efficiency funds to pay for local energy projects to mitigate climate change, lower grid demand, and keep electric rates competitive.

Consumers who want to lower bills, reduce carbon pollution, enhance energy resilience, harness the use of energy and storage in their homes, and make our community more energy independent should call (617) 722-2000 and ask their state representative and state senator to sign onto S.D. 2061, “An Act Enabling Municipal Aggregation.” Local power for local people starts with your local voice.

Al Norman lives in Greenfield.