– Public Comment Period Now Open –
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno joined with Chief Administrative and Financial Officer Cathy Buono, Director of Disaster Recovery & Compliance Tina Quagliato Sullivan, Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management Director Tom Ashe, and President of Colonial Power Group Mark Cappadona on Wednesday morning at City Hall to share an announcement about the city’s new Community Choice Energy Program. Senior Budget Analyst Ciara Hanlon and Jessica Collins from the Public Health Institute of Western Mass and Samantha Hamilton from Live Well Springfield also joined.
As part of Mayor Sarno’s continued to efforts to provide financial relief and assistance to Springfield residents and businesses, the City of Springfield is moving forwarding with the implementation of a Community Choice Power Supply Program (previously publicized as the Green Municipal Aggregation Program). The City has developed the Aggregation Plan in compliance with Massachusetts law regarding public aggregation of electric consumers. It contains required information on the structure, operations, services, funding, and policies of the City’s Plan. The Plan has been developed in consultation with the City’s municipal aggregation consultant, Colonial Power Group, Inc. (CPG) and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER).
The purpose of the Program is to allow the City to procure competitive electric supply on behalf of residents and businesses to provide cost savings and price stability. It seeks to aggregate consumers in the City to negotiate rates for power supply by bringing together the buying power of more than 155,000 consumers. Furthermore, the City seeks to take greater control of its energy options, including enhancing the ability to pursue price stability, savings opportunities and the amount of renewable energy procured in support of the City’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan. The City has been monitoring this opportunity for a number of years, waiting for the right time to take advantage of municipal aggregation and provide utility relief for residents. However, savings cannot be guaranteed.
Participation is voluntary for each consumer. Consumers will have the opportunity to decline service provided through the Plan and to choose any Competitive Supplier they wish. The City has distributed this Plan for public review prior to submitting it to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU).
Basic Service rates change twice a year or more, depending on rate class. As a result, the aggregation rate may not always be lower than the Basic Service rate. The goal of the aggregation is to deliver savings over the life of the Program against Eversource Basic Service. However, such savings and future savings cannot be guaranteed.
Public Review and Comment Period for the City of Springfield’s Aggregation Plan
The City of Springfield and Colonial Power Group have developed a draft aggregation plan and a public education and outreach plan in accordance with Massachusetts law regarding public aggregation of electrical consumers. The City of Springfield’s Community Choice Power Supply Program Aggregation Plan is being made available for public review and comment.
The public comment period will begin on April 24, 2024 at 9:00am and will end on May 31, 2024 at 5:00pm. Public comments may be submitted the following ways:
- In person at the City Clerk’s Office (City Hall Room 123)
- In writing by email to CHanlon@springfieldcityhall.com
- By postal mail to:
Ciara Hanlon
Senior Budget Analyst
Springfield City Hall
36 Court Street, Room 412
Springfield, MA 01103
Comments must be clearly marked City of Springfield’s Aggregation Plan and must be received (not postmarked) by the end of the comment period in order to be addressed.
The plan will be available for public viewing on the City’s website at:
https://www.springfield-ma.gov/finance/community-choice-energy-program
Any questions pertaining to this should be directed to Ciara Hanlon, Senior Budget Analyst at (413) 784-4819. An original hardcopy of the Plan is enclosed and is also available in English and Spanish at the following locations:
- City of Springfield, City Clerk’s office, 36 Court Street, 1st Floor
- City of Springfield, Springfield Office of Housing, 1600 East Columbus Avenue
- City of Springfield, Office of Planning & Economic Development, 70 Tapley Street
- City of Springfield, Mayor's Office, 36 Court Street, 2nd Floor
- City of Springfield, Parks Department, 200 Trafton Road
- Central Library Branch, 220 State Street
- Brightwood Branch Library, 359 Plainfield Street
- East Forest Park Branch Library, 136 Surrey Road
- East Springfield Branch Library, 21 Osborne Terrace
- Forest Park Branch Library, 380 Belmont Avenue
- Indian Orchard Branch Library, 44 Oak Street, IO
- Mason Square Branch Library, 765 State Street
- Sixteen Acres Branch Library, 1187 Parker Street
- Raymond Jordan Senior Center, 1476 Roosevelt Avenue
- Hungry Hill Senior Center, 773 Liberty Street
- Claudo Concepcion Senior Center, 1187 1/2 Parker Street
- Indian Orchard Citizens Council, 117 Main Street, IO
- Bay Area Neighborhood Resident Resource Center, 443 Bay Street
- New North Citizens Council, 2455 Main Street
- East Springfield Neighborhood Council, 1437 Carew Street
- South End Citizens Council, 510 Main Street
Once the city receives public comments and makes any updates necessary to the plan, it will then be submitted to the Department of Public Utilities for review and approval.
Mayor Sarno states, “My administration has been carefully and methodically reviewing and monitoring this issue for some time to take advantage of a municipal aggregation not only for our city but just as important to provide continued utility relief for our residents and businesses. I wanted to be absolutely certain that no predatory third parties would be coming in to take advantage of residents and lock them into unfair rates. I am confident in this plan prepared by Colonial Power that it has the needed flexibility to ensure residents will not be unfairly taken advantage of. I am grateful to our Eco Dev, Community Development, and Finance teams for their efforts to roll out this program to stabilize energy pricing and potentially provide more sustainable energy sources for all city residents, business owners. Thank you also to Mark Cappadona and Colonial Power Group for their work in preparing the plan. I encourage all to read through the plan and provide your feedback before we submit our final plan to DPU. You can find it here at City Hall in the Clerk’s Office or on our city website.”
Click to read the draft Springfield Community Choice Aggregaton Plan
