by: Emma McCorkindale, Adam Strzempko
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – If you live in Springfield you may soon be able to choose where you get your electricity from as the city announces its new Community Choice Energy Program.
According to the City of Springfield, the Community Choice Energy program is an initiative to stabilize the price of electricity and pursue renewable energy sources. This is a process in Massachusetts that allows local communities to have the responsibility of contracting the supply source of electricity that flows to ratepayers. This will allow the City of Springfield to prioritize longer-term energy agreements to stabilize the supply of electricity rates and negotiate the number of renewable energy sources that are supported by the contract.
The program the mayor announced is an effort to provide financial relief and assistance to residents and businesses. On Wednesday at Springfield City Hall, Mayor Sarno along with other city officials announced the Community Choice Energy Program.
President of Colonial Power Group Mark Cappadona told 22News, “This program is going to bring a choice that the residents of Springfield have not had in the past. This is going to be there, consumers can opt in or opt out, there is no fees there’s no penalties this is a municipal program that will absolutely bring choice stability to the electricity marketplace in the future.”
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.”
The plan was developed with Colonial Power Group and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and allows the city to find a competitive electric supply in an effort to provide lower energy costs. Right now the plan is available for public review and comment.