ITHACA, N.Y. — City officials are updating their plan to purchase energy in an effort to drive down Ithaca’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

The City of Ithaca approved a law in 2022 establishing a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program, which allows for collective purchasing of energy generated from renewable sources, like solar and hydro. 

Following new guidance from the state Public Service Commission, city officials are in the process of updating that law to differentiate between CCA, which allows the city to purchase energy in bulk, and another program known as Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

While some may be familiar with Ithaca’s prospective CCA program, its lesser-known sister DER program was the focus of discussion at last Wednesday night’s Common Council meeting.

A city DER program will allow residents to collaborate on, invest in, and even draw power from local renewable energy projects.

Addressing the council via video call, City of Ithaca Sustainability Director Rebecca Evans told the council that CCA was, “an opt-out program for most utility users, save for large users like Cornell, or the hospital.” She added that CCA “doesn’t necessarily get you out of a NYSEG bill, since NYSEG owns all of the infrastructure, like the substations, and all the wires between houses.” 

By implementing a CCA program, Ithaca would join other municipalities in the state such as the Town of New Paltz, which claims an annual savings of $300 to $400 for the average household, as well as a drastic reduction in the town’s carbon footprint.

The CCA and DER programs are a part of the city’s aggressive decarbonization and electrification goals it adopted in the Ithaca Green New Deal (IGND) in 2019, the city’s flagship environmental policy. The IGND includes a commitment to reach community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. The city appears far from reaching that goal, and has already missed another IGND benchmark: to power “government operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”

When asked how close the revised CCA and DER programs take Ithaca to the carbon-reduction goals under the IGND, Evans said some customers will still need to purchase natural gas to heat their homes.

“What this doesn’t do is eliminate thermal loads. So part of CCA is still going to be purchasing natural gas, because that’s what people use to heat their homes here for the most part, especially in the city.” Evans said “In order to get to net zero, we would also need to electrify those thermal loads, which the DER plan provides a pathway to do.”

Under the proposal, other municipalities in Tompkins County will be able to participate in the CCA and DER programs through an agreement known as Tompkins Green Energy Network.

Common Council is scheduled to take a final vote on adopting the revised DER plan on Feb. 4.

While the CCA essentially represents the freedom for the city to choose what type of energy it buys for its residents, DERs are physical renewables projects, like community solar installations, geothermal heat loops, or even electric vehicles and charging stations.

Evans characterized the city’s new DER plan as “entirely voluntary” for individuals and businesses alike, noting that unlike the CCA, “you would have to opt-in.” 

A DER program will create two ways to invest in renewable energy. A customer could buy a share of a project and receive renewable energy as a service, which is how community solar projects work. Alternatively, an individual or a business could also invest in a renewable energy project, and own part of it without using it.

Evans said customers that buy into a project could “receive dividends for what’s being purchased from it. But you don’t have to be the property owner where that project is built in order to invest in either of those pathways.” 

How widely DERs are built will “depend on the types of development, and types of developers that are available in this area,” Evans said.

The city’s proposed DER plan states that, “Any resident, business, institution, or government agency in the City” that is using services for electricity is eligible to participate in the DER program. Under the plan, even an individual consumer could choose to invest in a renewable energy project, such as bundled electric heating and car charging systems for one’s home or apartment building.

This type of investor is referred to in the plan as a “sharer,”, or someone who simply purchases shares in a DER project, such as a new bank of EV charging stations, or a heat pump. 

The other classifications are “site owners,” which are the owners of a building or property who consents to participate in a DER project, and “users,” meaning those who own a DER or DER shares, and actually use energy from the DER itself. A user could be an apartment renter who chooses to both use and cooperatively own a new heat pump with their landlord.

Evans told Common Council on Jan. 21 that, “For a property owner, or a DER owner as it says in the plan, you do actually receive financial benefit through dividends. For renters, or shareholders for example, you have the benefit of lower cost of renewable energy, and the peace of mind that it’s not using fossil fuels.”

“Having pathways for renters is one of our priorities,” Evans added.

Evans said the payments made to the city’s third-party DER administrator, Local Power, will come from project developers. 

“There is no exchange of payment between the city and the administrator, unless say, the city wanted to invest themselves,” Evans said.

The city plans to launch both the CCA and DER programs in September. Evans said the city will host a series of in-person and live-streamed town halls focused on the CCA and DER programs starting in February.

She noted that in the months leading up to September, every resident in the city and town of Ithaca will receive direct mailers. Should a resident wish to opt-out of the CCA, those mailers will provide them with the information to do so.