The Londonderry Utilities Committee met on April 7 to review the town’s official launch of its Community Power Aggregation program, which went live on April 1 after years of planning and public outreach.
Committee Chair Martha Smith said she had already received a few calls from residents with concerns about the program’s enrollment structure. “I did get a couple of people call me directly, and there were the same kind of comments when Freedom came to speak to the public,” Smith said. “The comment is that they wish it wasn’t an ‘opt out’ program. They wish it was an ‘opt in’ program.”
Smith explained that the automatic enrollment mechanism is essential to making community power viable. Roughly 3,000 households tied to third party suppliers or solar net metering plans were not automatically enrolled, but all other eligible meters were included unless residents chose to opt out.
“The whole idea of Aggregation is that you get an aggregate of numbers, and that speaks to what you’re able to do under the agreement,” Smith said. “If we did an opt in instead of an opt out, we may never get to the point where we could offer anything to the general public.”
Committee members emphasized that the program’s purpose is to leverage collective buying power to secure lower electricity rates. Residents remain free to leave the program at any time.
“That was done for the reason of addressing economies of scale,” said subcommittee member Lynn Wiles. “If this was an opt-in program, I don’t think we’d find an energy supplier willing to take the risk of participating in the program.”
Wiles acknowledged that opting out requires a small amount of effort but said the process is simple. “I feel bad that people have to do it, they either send back a postcard or go to the website, but it’s not a hard thing to do,” he said. “Anecdotally, I got many more comments from the townspeople thanking us for saving them money.”
Town officials have repeatedly highlighted the program’s potential to reduce electricity bills. Although the initial opt-out period ended on March 31, residents can still switch between Eversource and Community Power at any time without penalty if rates change.
Administrative Services Director Kirsten Hildonen reminded residents that timing matters when switching. “It is important to say that if you opt out after a certain date, your first bill may still go over, and then you’d be moved back,” she said.
Early participation numbers show strong support for the program. Of the 10,799 meters initially eligible, fewer than 1,000 opted out, giving Londonderry a 92.71% participation rate.
“It’s important to remember that those are households,” noted Committee member Mike Speltz. “It’s not that we have 10,000 people on the program, we’re just talking about meters.”
Participation may increase further as customers with third party suppliers become eligible to join in the coming weeks and months.