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Dover NH to launch community power, lower bills in spring 2024
DOVER — The City Council has approved Dover for a spring 2024 launch of the statewide community power program designed to lower electricity costs.
Dover is one of 14 founding members of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, which has begun to have towns and cities throughout the state roll out their individual municipal community programs. The program is projected to lower costs and expand access to renewable energy sources,
A past memo written by Dover resilience manager Jackson Kaspari noted city residents and other electricity customers could save 23% on their monthly electric bills after joining the coalition.
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Two weeks earlier, the City Council, operating without Deputy Mayor Dennis Shanahan, held a vote on whether to have City Manager Michael Joyal Jr. execute a contract for the city with the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire this year. The vote resulted in a 4-4 tie, meaning that the motion failed and Dover wouldn’t be starting its citywide community power program in June 2023, which was the next available date.
Dover had six of nine city councilors in attendance at its May 24 meeting, and they voted 6-0 in favor of starting the program in spring 2024. Absent were councilors Fergus Cullen, Michelle Muffett-Lipinski and Lindsey Williams.
Joyal asked for the motion to come back to a vote in order to affirm the city’s commitment to continue participating in the community power coalition. The city manager said the opportunity to start its community power program in 2023 has passed.
“This is simply me coming back to you and saying that it’s important for us as a community, with our standing in the coalition as one of the founding members on the board, that we have acknowledgement by our legislative body that it’s our intent to stay involved (and) stay engaged, even though we’re not rolling out the program immediately,” he said.
When Dover officially starts its community power program, Eversource, the city’s energy distributor, will continue to send out electricity bills. The Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, which contains numerous Seacoast communities, will serve as city customers’ new energy supplier.
The coalition has the ability to buy multiple short- and long-term energy contracts in bulk, unlike Eversource.
Existing coalition electricity supply rates for residential and small commercial customers are 15.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) through July 31, Kaspari wrote. In comparison, Eversource’s rates for most customers are 20.2 cents per kWh, a 22% difference.
The 15.8 cents per kWh price is the basic rate among the coalition’s four electricity choices for customers. The basic rate offers 23.4% renewable energy sources, the memo reads.
Coalition members seeking 100% clean energy currently pay rates of 19.1 cents per kWh.
Future coalition electricity supply prices could fluctuate.
In his memo to the City Council, which was drafted in late April, Kaspari recommended Dover wait to launch its community program until the spring 2024.
“Unfortunately, it’s very challenging, due to the nature of power markets, procurement schedules and everything else, to have a specific date set in stone,” he told the council May 24. “We’re very confident that April 2024 is a conservative timeframe and that it’s actually possible the city can move a bit faster on this if conditions allow for procurement to commence, bringing on the load that would be participating through the program without negatively impacting the operating programs at that time.”
State municipalities that have started enrolling residents into the coalition program include Enfield, Exeter, Hanover, Harrisville, Lebanon, Nashua, Peterborough, Plainfield, Rye, and Walpole. Community power programs in Portsmouth and Canterbury were slated to begin May 30.
