For the six months beginning Aug. 1, the new default energy rate for customers of Canterbury Community Power (CCP) will be 8.8 cents/kWh. It meets the legal minimum of 24.3% renewable-sourced power, and is based on an innovative new rate structure offered by the statewide Community Power Coalition of NH, which will combine “Granite Basic” (at 8.6 cents/kWh) with a “discretionary adder” of two-tenths of a cent/kWh. This will allow Canterbury to begin to create new Discretionary Reserves, available to the selectboard to fund or support local renewable energy projects or programs that will save even more money for Canterbury residents. 

CCP will also offer “Granite Basic” (24.3% renewable) at 8.6 cents/kWh, as an “opt-down” energy rate; and as “opt-up” options, “Granite Plus” (33% renewable) at 9.3 cents, “Clean 50” (50% renewable) at 10.0 cents, and “Clean 100” (100% renewable) at 12.0 cents/kWh. 

CCP’s new default energy rate compares with the default energy rates of our three utilities for the 6 months beginning Aug. 1 as follows: 

• Unitil: 10.5 cents/kWh

• Eversource: 10.5 cents/kWh (requested but not yet approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, or PUC)

• CCP: 8.8 cents/kWh

• NHEC: 8.6 cents/kWh (approved by NHEC Board)

Canterbury’s NHEC customers were not automatically enrolled in CCP because NHEC’s default energy rate was lower than CCP’s when we launched a year ago. NHEC customers who are currently on NHEC’s default rate should continue to stay on that rate if their priority is saving every possible cent on their electric bill.

Note: Any Canterbury resident who has been on CCP’s lowest energy rate, “Granite Basic,” and wants to continue to pay the lowest possible rate, always has the option (starting July 2) to “opt-down” to the new Granite Basic rate of 8.6 cents/kWh. To do that, go to CommunityPowerNH.gov/Canterbury and make your selection online, or call a CCP customer service representative at 1-866-603-7697 weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm.

Canterbury has been joined by several other community power municipalities in offering a “Discretionary Reserve adder” rate to residents. The City of Nashua has set a default rate just like Canterbury’s, while Peterborough is offering residents an energy rate with a seven-tenths of a cent/kWh Discretionary Reserve adder, and Cheshire County is offering a three-tenths of a cent/kWh adder to Granite Basic for its member towns.

Another monthly increase in total benefits to Canterbury: From our launch a year ago through April 30 (the last figures we have), CCP customers have benefited from $193,000 in rate savings over utility default energy rates and an additional $101,000 in Canterbury’s share of Joint Reserves, our share of  Community Power of New Hampshire’s net assets statewide. Once these assets are sufficient to cover 120 days of the statewide organizations’ operating expenses, Canterbury’s share will become available to the town too. Canterbury’s energy rate savings and our share of Joint Reserves amount to over $294,000 in community benefits through the end of April, a figure that we will update as subsequent months become available.

Eversource’s new distribution rate: Your monthly electric bill is composed of two parts, each accounting for roughly half the bill—an energy supply charge, and a delivery charge. The energy supply charge involves the rates discussed above. The delivery charge has two parts: a Transmission charge set by the Federal Energy Commission, and a Distribution charge covering the expense of maintaining local “poles and wires” set by our own state Public Utilities Commission (PUC). 

Canterbury residents who get their delivery service (and their monthly bills) from Eversource should be aware that in June Eversource asked the PUC for a whopping 42% increase in the distribution portion of the delivery charge on its customers’ monthly bills, which would amount to a 10% increase in Eversource customers’ monthly bills for the next year, and a 17% increase over two years, if it is granted by the PUC.

The continuing dispute with Eversource over net-metering: Unfortunately, we are unable to report significant progress in the Net-Metering dispute, which is still being negotiated with Eversource (and to a lesser degree Unitil). During the just-ended Legislative term, hopes were high for the passage of HB 1600. Passed unanimously by Republicans and Democrats on the House Science, Technology & Energy Committee and clear majorities in both the House and Senate, HB 1600 would have allowed CPA’s (“Community Power Aggregations” like CCP) to offer net-metering rates on favorable terms to PV solar customer-generators—but it was unexpectedly de-railed by a late letter of opposition from the NH Department of Energy, raising questions relating to net-metering rates in other states. A successor to HB 1600 cannot be introduced until the next Legislature meets in January. In the meantime, the next hope for progress will come in a PUC proceeding, Docket 22-060, in which a hearing on the merits of new net-metering rates will not be held until August, with a decision probably not until early 2025. We wish we had better news for our residents with PV solar.

~ Howard Moffett and Ellen Scarponi, for Canterbury Community Power