Good news!  Your Con Ed bills could go down by $300 to $600 dollars!

The Town Board approved a resolution earlier this week that could provide some relief to every resident of the town. We entered into an agreement to participate in a "community choice aggregation" program through Sustainable Westchester.

Participating communities will pool resources and procure energy supplies from an ESCO. In February of this year the New York State Public Service Commission authorized Sustainable Westchester to become the first community in New York State to put out for bid the total amount of natural gas or electricity being purchased by local residents and small businesses.

The program has some benefits: Price stability for a fixed contract term, better terms than a typical resident could get acting alone (since we're purchasing in bulk) and the ability to design a program that reflects local goals like cleaner power sources.  Currently, anyone can purchase their energy from an ESCO but many ESCOs don't provide fixed rates --they offer ratepayers good deals initially and than increase the rates a short time later. It's confusing comparing the ESCOs. Sustainable Westchester has the resources to compare ESCOs and to get an agreement for a fixed term.

Sustainable Westchester is planning to issue a request for proposals to suppliers to provide energy to participants and than will award the contract.  Conditions to the participation: the default price is guaranteed to be consistently less than the utility price for the same period or the default price is fixed at a level that is less than the average utility price for the same commodity, for the same customer class over the preceding 12 month period or the default price is at first set at a level that is less than the average utility price for electricity for the same customer class over the preceding 12 month period and only floats upward by less than 25% of the price increases implemented by the utilities.

The town will notify residents and business owners eligible for inclusion in the program.  The only major concern residents who attended the Town Board had: Once we enter into an agreement everyone in town participates UNLESS they opt out. We will schedule an information meeting prior to the implementation of this program with representatives of the company. Residents and businesses can opt out anytime.  

If you watch the Town Board meeting of May 27th on the internet (our meetings are streamed) this was the last discussion we had.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  The $300-$600 savings is based on experiences other communities around the country have had with similar programs.

PAUL FEINER