RSA 53-E created the necessary legal framework for community power. The central conceit is to aggregate many small energy consumers under one umbrella, so they can act as a single customer when they contract for energy services (i.e., analogous to a “buying club”).

• A municipal aggregator can build its own portfolio of energy sources and offer several different combinations to consumers. Some products may emphasize renewable energy while other may emphasize affordability.
• A municipality may choose to generate its own power to feed into the grid for distribution to its aggregate members, but this is not a required part of a community power plan. Wilmot could conceivably buy power from another municipality that generates its own.
• The energy distributor (mostly the N.H. Energy Cooperative, in our case) remains the same and continues to bill the aggregator customers.
• It is not required that a resident to join a municipal aggregate. A plan can be either opt-in or opt-out. If it goes forward as the latter, then all residents must receive by mail an invitation to opt-out.

The committee meets last Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the town offices.

Community Power Plan Committee

Documents