Residents and business owners in Methuen – a burg of about 47,000 people in Northeastern Massachusetts – will save more than $900,000 annually thanks to the newly created Methuen Community Choice Power Supply Program, Mayor Stephen Zanni announced on May 28.
The city has entered into a two year agreement with Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Colonial Power Group as its broker to facilitate purchasing electricity at a lower rate than the National Gridbasic service rate that currently is being charged.
Competitive retail supplier TransCanada Power Marketing of Westborough, Massachusetts, was then selected through another bid process as the energy supplier.
“We’ve seen how the spikes in the cost of electricity can be burdensome for Methuen residents,” said Mayor Zanni, adding, “We’re pleased to work with Colonial Power to offer Methuen residents and small business owners the opportunity to have a more stable and lower cost energy option.”
Participating residents and businesses in Methuen are expected to see an annual savings of about 7 percent off their monthly energy bills. The program will provide a combined savings of more than $78,000 per month for the city’s homes and businesses. Methuen’s long-term managed product plan allows pricing to be adjusted every six months to secure optimal savings for residents and small business owners.
“The Methuen Community Choice program provides price stability, local control, and competition while also lowering the burden of energy costs for Methuen’s residents and business community,” said Colonial Power President Mark Cappadona.
Under the program, residents will not notice any change in their electricity service. The only difference will be that TransCanada will be printed under the “Supplier Services” on monthly bills. Residents and small business owners will continue to receive one bill from National Grid and to send payments to National Grid for processing. There will be no interruption in billing, power, or customer service.
Municipal electricity aggregation allows cities and towns to pool the electrical consumption of all ratepayers in their jurisdictions and competitively procure lower cost electricity supply on behalf of the participants. The aggregation allows the municipality to obtain better pricing than individual residents and business owners could due to economies of scale. Colonial Power works with state officials, utility executives, and energy industry leaders to facilitate the purchase of electricity at a rate lower than basic service rates. No action is required by ratepayers to participate in this cost-saving program.
The program will be operated on an opt-out basis, meaning that all Methuen residential and business customers currently on National Grid’s basic service will be automatically enrolled into the program unless they choose to opt out.