THE STATE DEPARTMENT of Public Utilities released a new framework for approving municipal electric aggregation plans that is designed to dramatically speed up the process and give cities and towns more flexibility in running them.
Municipal aggregation plans allow cities and towns to negotiate electricity rates on behalf of their residents. The plans have gained tremendous popularity as the cost of electricity has risen and the aggregation efforts have often yielded lower prices than the basic service provided by utilities and the rates of retail suppliers.
James Van Nostrand, the chair of the DPU, said municipalities were waiting as long as two years for an aggregation approval when he was appointed to his position more than a year ago. With the new framework, he said, the agency has committed to a process that will yield decisions in four months or less.
The DPU said 199 municipal aggregation plans have been approved to date, including 22 while the new framework was being developed. Thirty applications are pending. Nearly 1.3 million customers are enrolled in municipal aggregation plans across the state.
“There’s a lot of interest out there,” Van Nostrand said. “A lot of municipalities were on standby while we got this sorted out.”
Van Nostrand said the DPU’s initial inclination was to design a top-down prescriptive approval process. Stakeholders, including cities and towns and the consultants who work with them, didn’t like the rigid DPU approach so Van Nostrand said he and his fellow commissioners scrapped it and replaced it with a more “hands-off” approach. The Department of Energy Resources came up with guidelines for municipalities to follow and the DPU developed an application template.
Communities were also given more flexibility in amending their original plans. Previously, changes had to be approved by the DPU. Under the new framework, communities can modify their plans themselves after a 30-day public review process.
The post DPU unveils plan to speed up municipal electricity aggregation approvals appeared first on CommonWealth Beacon.