City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire 2022 - 2024 City Council, 13 Feb 2023

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From YouTube: 2.13.2023 City Council Work Session

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2.13.2023 City Council Work Session

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All right uh welcome everyone to tonight's uh work session on community power for monday february.

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13Th, I don't have much to do to pass it over uh to henry herdon. uh The community power coalition.

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But I'd like to thank councilor tabor for all the effort that has gotten us to this point.

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um I'm sure that there is a a lot that goes into any of these things, but john has been on this for.

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uh Quite a while and put a lot of work into it so happy that we can be here this evening.

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To hear the latest in advance of some upcoming uh dates that are going to be important, henry.

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Yes, thank you, mr mayor, thank you portsmouth city council, for inviting me out um I'm pleased to join.

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You and to talk through a status update of the community power coalition of new hampshire and.

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How that applies to the city of portsmouth and um how the city and its residents might in the very.

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Near future begin to start benefiting from some rate relief and expanded energy choices before.

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We dive in we've got a lot of really detailed material on how this startup power agency that.

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Was created by new hampshire cities, towns and counties uh where it is at what its status is.

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We're going to get into all the details of that. I want to just sort of note up front. um It's.

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Been a real pleasure working with the portsmouth energy advisory committee, you have really strong.

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Capacity on that committee, you've got folks from the utility sector from the energy industry more.

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Broadly communications team, that's been really successful with their survey and getting the word.

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Out so I work with committees all across the state. You've got a really good team and you're lucky to.

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Have that team um and part of what this coalition does uh is build relationships and bring together.

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That sort of community level leadership uh in a statewide fashion not just to to procure power and.

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To get more affordable rates, but really to sort of lift the hood on. How does the power sector.

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Operate and to give cities and towns insight into our power markets and really oversight, so that.

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The benefits that we've seen large energy users get from this competitive energy market. We can.

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Give those benefits to residential customers into small business customers as well. That's.

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Really, what this is about um and uh this sort of this, this statewide coalition and the role that.

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Portsmouth is playing it and in the connections with all the other communities across the state.

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I think are sort of a theme we'll talk about um and, and part of that is, governance is giving.

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Our cities and towns greater governance over um their energy decisions. So with that, um I will move.

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Through some presentation materials, there are also some really good questions that came up at the.

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um Committee public hearing last week and a number of those are addressed in this presentation and.

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I'll try to talk through them as well, um because there's there's a lot of there are a lot of.

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Details and one of the things we'll we'll get into our some of the key policies and contracts that.

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Will be brought to the city council for review and approval I'll, just name those briefly there's.

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A cost sharing agreement, which is the overarching contract that um ensures costs, are fairly shared.

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Across all the member cities, towns and counties and those those costs are all paid for through.

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Electric rates, not through taxpayer funds, um but that's something that is on the horizon in the.

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uh After this electric aggregation plan and then there's a rates policy, a reserves, policy, financial.

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Reserves policy and an energy portfolio risk management policy and a data protection policy.

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So these are where all the nitty-gritty details of how this operates are outlined, and these are.

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The documents that will be brought to the city for review and consideration so there's there's.

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Detailed material there we'll talk through them at a high level, but I do want to just foreshadow that.

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um That's on the horizon for the city, so coming back up from the the nitty-gritty, we'll do a re.

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A refresher on what community power is. This is as a result of recent legislation, the city of.

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Portsmouth can become the default electricity supplier. You can procure electricity on behalf.

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Of the collective residents and businesses, the utility company eversource will own and operate.

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The grid and deliver that power- and there are a number of benefits we've seen demonstrated.

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In other states and markets, lower rates and really giving the residents access to green.

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Power options and what we'll talk about later in the presentation are some of the the deeper.

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Innovations, developing local energy generation that directly provides economic benefit and rate.

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Relief for residents and businesses, so the rsa it's 53e and these programs are entirely voluntary.

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When they launch and customers can choose to to come and go as they please without penalty.

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The community power coalition new hampshire was created on october 1st 2021, a little more.

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Than a year ago, by an initial 14 cities, towns and counties, portsmouth joined very shortly thereafter,.

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The this non-profit agency, it's governed by the collective membership, kevin charette, peter rice,.

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Sit on the board of directors and represent portsmouth there kevin's, actually, the vice.

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Chair of the board and each member community has appointed representatives to govern and.

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Oversee this new power agency, this new power supplier that will serve the members collectively.

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So there's currently 27 actually 28 sorry 29 communities, the city of berlin just joined today.

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um And there's a significant economy of scale in that collective buying power.

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It's uh over a hundred thousand hundred and twenty five thousand customers approximately.

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At full enrollment, that's a significant volume of electricity sale and a significant cash flow.

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Significant revenue that will flow through this non-profit works on behalf of the communities and.

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Allows communities like the city of portsmouth to accrue a reserve fund and collect reserves.

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For the longevity of the program to keep rates low over time and to to give other benefits to.

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Their communities so at full enrollment of the collective communities- that's approximately 140.

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Million dollars per year in revenue, the vast majority flows to the purchase of electricity.

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But there is uh revenue that flows to the overhead and the operating costs, as well as.

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The reserve fund- that's governed by the financial reserve policy and that portsmouth could create.

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Discretionary reserves out of over time, so the initial wave, if you will of cities and towns.

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Up to a dozen right now, nine have executed the authorizing contracts, the cost sharing.

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Agreement, the member services contract adopted those policies. Nine have done that and are.

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Planning to launch in april there are a couple of others, portsmouth included that have the option.

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Of launching programs in april may june time frame dover's on that list, nash was on that list.

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um A couple of others and uh then beyond that there's sort of a second wave of another dozen.

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To 15 cities and towns that are more on track to go, live in 2020.

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And henry you're talking to another 30 or 40 towns as we speak right, that's right! So then.

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There's you know, that's just the ones that have done that first hurdle of joint powers.

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Agreement become a member put someone on the board there's another over 30 that are.

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Interested we actually have a forum for those communities next week, a virtual forum to invite.

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Them all in and give a status update and and bring them into the membership if they would.

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Choose to join and as fort smith well knows, you know, membership is a seat at the table without.

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Any commitment and your commitment, it doesn't even come with the approval of your plan. It.

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Because it comes later on after you've reviewed the contracts and really up until the point.

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In which we procure power- and you have a good degree of certainty of what your rate will be.

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um So yeah thank you, kevin and I also I do welcome questions as I go. um So please do interrupt me. I'm.

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Happy to sort of have this be conversational, if that's uh the pleasure of the council, when.

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Was the date which you had said not this first way they're signing up, but the first opportunity.

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Portsmouth would have if we wanted to go prior to 2024. uh likely june. So you, if you were to.

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Approve your electric aggregation plan, which is actually already being reviewed by the state.

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um Yeah, you could go, you could. Potentially you have the opportunity to launch a program.

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In may or june of this year and right now, the those nine communities are looking at a very.

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Favorable headroom very favorable, the the cost of the utilities, supply rate and the cost of power in.

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The market there's a significant difference there. This is a very this. This spring, in particular, is.

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A very advantageous time to go to market and both give the residents and businesses lower.

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Rates and collect financial reserves out the gate for the programs long-term benefit.

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So this this next slide just talks about some of the overarching benefits which.

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We've discussed, but really there's the the joint and local control.

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um This group of communities across the state has vetted industry experts. We ran a competitive.

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Solicitation hired some of the best talent in the country uh to operate power, procurement and we'll.

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Get into who the vendors are and there's a strong emphasis on education and informed decision making.

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Through this transparent, you know publicly, uh the coalition is subjects right to know in all these.

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um Transparency and public interest provisions, so um that's a strong emphasis, obviously um lower.

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Costs are benefit we've seen. Other markets demonstrate that a number of communities are.

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Excited about the possibility to build energy generation in new hampshire that.

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Is cost effective in that lowers rates and supports our economic development, renewable.

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Energy and solar or energy storage and we'll get into that on some later slides and.

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Yeah, there's there's a lot of potential for for innovating, um so we can go to the next slide. This.

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Is going to just summarize some of the the big milestones that the coalition has accomplished.

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Collectively, uh over 100 public meetings of the board and six committees of which kevin you serve.

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On, I guess two committees and the and the board- and there have been significant legislative and.

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Policy advantages to moving forward beneficial legislation, including legislation related to.

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Community power and really writing the rules that the public utility commission. We have expertise.

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Like the board chair, clifton below from the city of lebanon, who's been a legislator, he's been a.

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Regulator and who is has deep technical ability there, but also the collective advocacy power of.

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This membership has has been a real strength at in-state policy issues. I mentioned the um the.

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Solicitation to bring on industry leading experts to operate the agency. That's also come with 750.

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000 in startup funds and considerable credit support from ascend and calpine, so uh 8.5.

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Million dollars in credit, support to finance the initial power procurement for this first wave.

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I mentioned the uh the policies- energy portfolio, risk management, retail rates.

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Financial reserves, data security, and these are all available as links in the in the presentation.

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um And then and yeah I mentioned some of these other policies and.

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What the vendor ascend analytics does what they've done for us is they've conducted a technical.

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Assessment and uh forecasted the financials of procurement for these communities around 100.

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Simulations um and really stress, test stress tested what this will look like as we go live.

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This is a company that um they run procurement for major utilities and other community power.

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Agencies across the country and they're bringing a real depth of technical expertise to support.

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The cities and towns collectively can I jump in again please the 8.5 million dollar in.

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Credit support is that from renewable energy credits, or is that a different type of credit.

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That is, that is capital to purchase power uh to essentially we're gonna ai electricity in.

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February march april, and then revenue will begin to flow in from customers in april may june. Some.

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Needs to essentially finance that initial power procurement, so that's that is the capital that.

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Will purchase electricity and then the coalition will repay that through the the revenues from.

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Selling electricity across the communities and it's a good it's a good question, because.

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The the vendor team is very flexible and um while they are providing credit to finance.

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The initial power procurement they're very collaborative in allowing that cpc and age.

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Will quickly shift away from external financing and towards self-financing of projects. So as.

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The coalition launches it will begin to sell electricity, it will collect revenue and it'll.

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It'll pay for the electricity, it'll pay off the financing costs and it will accrue cash reserves.

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And over time we can use those cash reserves that are really owned and controlled by the.

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Communities to to self-finance and to provide our own credit, which is going to lower cost so.

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There's a there is a financing cost, there's an interest cost associated with that credit.

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Foreign, this is just showing the membership across the state and the scale again. So the the red bar.

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Is representing the current membership as compared to the utility companies so ever.

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Source, if you combine the dark gray and the light gray with the dotted line, that is the.

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Current scale of eversource energy supply and then the dotted line is representing assuming all these.

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Communities switch to community power. What's left is the the gray. um So uh red is current membership.

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Blue is interested communities, and this is just illustrating that if 12 go live this year and.

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Another 15 the next year and then the interested communities all come online in three years. Then.

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This coalition will quickly become the largest default electricity provider in the state, so.

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Already that red bar is larger than unitil total and liberty and new hampshire, electric cooperative.

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I mentioned governance, this is just a list of the board directors um and we just want to sort.

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Of re-emphasize, there are folks on this board with policy, expertise and experience from the utility.

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Sector from a competitive energy side of the business folks who have founded energy companies.

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um Municipal officials and municipal managers so there's a broad depth of experience on the board.

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That are all weighing in across the different committees and participating in in some fashion.

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And overseeing the the startup of the coalition- and I mentioned that you know 100 plus public.

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Meetings this, this is just showing um part of what the coalition does is we streamline.

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Implementation, this is the development of your plan providing the template providing technical.

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Expertise to help you customize that plan and then again portsmouth has done a really fantastic.

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Job of engaging the public, so you have a lot of capacity there, but there there are aspects that.

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The coalition supports with as well in terms of messaging and branding and logo development.

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We talked about governance, the other side is operations, so hiring expert firms who.

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Are equipped to manage procurement and manage customer service? Ascend analytics has been.

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Contracted with to provide for energy, hedging and energy portfolio management, they will monitor the.

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Energy market day-to-day week to week month to month, to ensure we're entering into the best deals.

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And contracts and hedges to get the best rates for communities, they also have the ability to.

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um Do deal valuation, so communities want to develop or contract with a developer.

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To build a solar array in the state, they're very equipped to assess and compare different options.

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To help select the most cost effective and most beneficial project development opportunities.

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Calvin energy solutions, retail customer services and load serving entity services.

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They will um really there's a lot of data management and data sharing with utility.

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Companies, so utilities will transmit all of the customer account information, metering and.

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Billing information and things of that nature and we'll collect the revenues through the utility.

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Billing of the customers calpine manages all of that behind the scenes, as well as.

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um Customer opt-in opt out, opt up, so an individual customer can choose to leave at.

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Any time that's through calpine customer service call center things of that nature, as well as on.

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What was the other piece I was going to mention.

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That's escapes me, but um I think that that summarizes roughly calpine's role, clean energy.

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New hampshire has been partnered with their local non-profit. That does a lot of public engagement.

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uh So they're supporting in in that regard, their number of law firms, some startup consultants and.

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um A banking institution who will um administer the secure revenue account where revenues flow.

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Into and then flow out of, the pay energy suppliers, service providers and then accrue as as reserve.

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This is a little bit busy, but just uh trying to put all the pieces in one picture on the.

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Slide so you can see at the top. These are all the communities sitting on the board.

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Of directors, providing oversight and manning the committees which are listed on the left.

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Risk management, regulatory, legislative affairs, member operations and engagement, ceo search.

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Etc um and then on the right, you have the the legal, the consultants and then the service.

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Providers across the bottom and they're different roles, so I don't know other other. I was going to.

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See if there might be questions on this, it's a lot visually, but we're happy to move on as well.

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So we're going to get a little bit into the the technical assessment uh conducted by sending analytics.

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So one of the key takeaways is, as a result of these hundred model runs.

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The assessment finds that we can expect 16 percent lower cost than utility default.

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Across those hundred runs and that's shown in a probability, distribution on the top left, there.

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That blue uh line chart that's illustrating sort of the present percentage probability of benefit.

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Ranging in really the the 12 to 20 percent range, that's what we can expect part of the reason for.

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This is because of the advantage competitive supply entities have over utilities, utility.

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Companies are very constrained, they're required to go into the market at set times twice per year,.

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And they have no control over that, so whenever their six months is up, they just take whatever.

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Price the market has to offer because that's that's the regulated bind. They are in competitive.

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Suppliers and the coalition can actively go into the market. When we choose, we can have some short.

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Term some medium terms, some longer term contracts and this active portfolio management really.

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Demonstrates lower rates than the utility approach- and we see this in another non-regulated entity- is.

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The new hampshire electric cooperative- they are a utility in the state that is not regulated because.

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They're owned by their members, they're they're, cooperatively owned. They use this portfolio.

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Management approach and they consistently deliver supply rates lower than the utility company.

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Henry, if I could just kind of a classic example, was last year where utility rates were about 10 10.

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Cents per kilowatt hour in the first half of the year and the utilities went out to to bid in june.

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And we all know what was going on in our world in june of last year after the beginning of the war.

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Et cetera and we ended up with rates of 22 cents, so they go out to bid in june for rates that are.

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Going to get set in august of 2022- and it just happened to be that was the market in in june.

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Of 2022 and the utilities across not only new hampshire, but new england ended up with the.

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Rates that we do because it was just a you know, a one-time procurement process in the month of.

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June and yeah rates went from 10 cents to 22 cents right, so that gives a structural.

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Advantage, that's right, and it's worth noting too, that the co-op, which is also non-profit and.

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Uses a portfolio approach when things spike to 22 cents, they held at 17. right, and I I think their.

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Experience is really what we're we're looking at doing, right and, and so what that translates.

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To in our forecast over the five first five years of operation with new communities coming.

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Online is 60 million dollars in customer savings across that collective customer base, as well as.

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85 million in accrual of financial reserves, these reserves that the coalition will hold jointly and.

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Maybe the market changes the market goes up. We can lean on those reserves to keep.

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Rates low over time, and then they also are a mechanism to finance projects that will.

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Also lower rates over time and there's a slide coming up on that. um So just one quick question.

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um When it's phrased as it is that the utility companies are are required to procure energy.

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Twice a year that, on its face, seems ridiculous, but why are they required to do that? Is there.

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Any advantage that a utility company would say, or the state legislator that uh put that bill forth.

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To regulate utilities in such a way would argue is the benefit of a twice yearly procurement process.

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It's a good question. There are, I mean, there's a, I think, part of the theory is you can have.

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Consistency because you just you know that the utility is only going at certain times.

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um What's what's been shown, is it's not effective there isn't? There is an investigation that the.

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Regulator, the public utility commission has begun to look into this to say well. Is there another.

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Better way, utilities should buy power, essentially asking the same question. You just asked that.

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Hasn't resulted in anything in those processes tend to take considerable time. I think uh sorry.

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Kevin did you want to jump in or no I just I can. This is the way it's been since deregulation.

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Back in uh 2000 utilities are always meant to be the provider of last resort. The thought was the.

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Markets were going to open up 20 years ago and and those who didn't choose or because of credit.

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And collection issues had had to come back to the utility it was. It was the provider of last resort.

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And a kind of turned out to just be the opposite or the primary provider. And often, though, the the.

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Energy markets have been kind of sleepy, so the fact that they do go out twice a year. You know.

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You see ebbs and flows and it goes higher in the in the winter time. But you you haven't seen you.

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Know spikes like you, we we saw recently or back in the polar vortex a few years ago. So you know.

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They're the the fact that they go out twice a year, while the portfolio management process would.

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um I think always beat it. um There hasn't been as much media attention on the utility.

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Process as as there was in this past year, okay um and then I guess another follow-up.

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Would our would the models change if we had all of the communities in new hampshire join another way.

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Of asking it is, are we delivering power to people that maybe delivery charges or infrastructure to.

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Deliver the power is, is lower, or does everybody in the state of new hampshire get power in the same.

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uh The same way, so it doesn't matter if we have, we bring a 800 person. Town up in you know, pittsburgh.

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New hampshire on does that question make sense it does it. So the answer is it's less about geography.

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Or size and it's more about how do the energy users in that town use energy? So if there are.

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Let's say lots of businesses on the utility supply that only run power from 12 p.m, to 6 p.m. They're.

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Going to be way more expensive and I don't know why they would be that way. But but you can look at.

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How the different load profiles are how different energy usage patterns are across communities and.

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That can change costs and the structure of the coalition is to, to the degree possible, ensure.

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That certain towns and certain energy users that are more expensive to serve will pay for those.

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Extra costs and the townsend and users that are less expensive to serve will you know not pay any.

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Extra cost for that so there's when we get into the cost sharing agreement, it's all about ensuring.

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Costs are fairly distributed and you don't have one town or customer cross subsidizing. Another.

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Thanks- and I think this next slide is- is going to be a useful one as well.

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um So this is showing essentially that the the stack of revenue allocation.

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um Important to note that rates will be uniform across the members and across the.

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Utility territories at launch, um and then one of the questions that came up was how much is the.

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Startup cost that we're paying back, and that comes out to um 0.01 percent of revenues over five years.

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So um in in the stack right now we have, if you look at the bar chart on the left.

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uh Utility prices are at 20 cents right now, so that full bar chart stack is the the current.

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Utility rate and the the full bar is the forecasted utility rate for each um period.

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The shaded area, at the top of the bar, that is the customer discount, anticipated and.

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Then the green portion is the allocation to reserve funds. The remainder of the bar from.

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Blue down through the bottom is, is the cost of power and operations. So this is similarly.

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Represented in the pie chart in the middle, you see, yellow that's how much of the the.

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Revenue is flowing to energy cost and then yellow orange green, the brownish. Those are.

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Really all the energy costs- those are all of the wholesale electricity market costs. Importantly,.

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In blue, we have four percent of that is going to pay for operations. That's financing and operations.

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And the green slice of the pie is again the reserve accrual.

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On the far right, this is sort of simplifying that down the the red is just representing all.

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Of the energy costs lumps together, the blue is the cost of operations. The vendor team.

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And the overhead and the financing and then that 17 at the top is the anticipated margin.

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Which is shared between two things, so 17 of value.

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A portion of that is seen by the customers as rate discount and a portion of that is collected.

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As reserves for the benefit of the collective membership and just to give a little more context,.

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Our committee wanted to figure out the best way to do a community power program.

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And we spent the fall of 2021 researching. Should we just go to a power broker as portsmouth.

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And give him all our load. Well, the blue, the green and the gray there.

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The savings versus the default utility default that would have gone to the broker, but instead.

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It goes to the customer and it goes to the reserve fund and the reserve fund. You know it'll will have.

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To take a big chunk, bigger chunk of the rate to start, but that reserve fund builds up quickly and.

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Then that's the stability. When we get these price shocks we can. We can buffer those price shocks.

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um And keep rates stable for for the rate payers, so you know again the advantage of a non-profit.

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uh By governments for governments is all of the benefits of the bulk purchasing are going.

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Into service into serving the rate payers in one form or another and I'll just follow up.

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A little bit on that, um I agree with almost everything you said one one thing I I would.

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I would just adjust a little bit, you know you, you could go with a broker contract and.

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On day one the customers might get savings, they likely would get savings. What you cannot ensure.

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Is long-term savings because you may be locking into a 24-month contract and if you lock into a.

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24-Month contract- let's say at 16 cents right now that looks really good and the far left bar chart.

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um Because the bar chart goes up to 20 cents, you lock in at 16 cents, you're very happy. But then, if.

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You look at august, 23 january 24. Oh no, the market is expected to fall to 12 cents, so you could find.

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Yourself in a situation where you're in a 24-month contract that looked very good on day one. But then.

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The utilities went out and came back and and now they're much cheaper than you, but you're stuck.

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With that broker contract, so that's, I think one of the advantages of the coalition is the ability.

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To change rates over time to maintain the discount to the utility and then I agree completely really.

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The other value is that green portion, that's the broker's net profit or the supplier's.

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Profit, whereas through this coalition, that's actually accruing for the community's benefit.

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So we do have a slider two on projects and I do want to be clear.

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um There there will not be any projects developed in 2023. The coalition may begin to entertain.

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Contracts with project developers as soon as 2024, but these will take time. That being said, all of.

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The uh information from our technical assessment indicates that the extent to which the coalition.

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Can develop generation projects on behalf of members will translate into into revenue for.

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The coalition or cost reduction for the customers so there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of.

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Incentives coming from the federal government, the inflation reduction act in particular, has.

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Investment tax credits or really direct payments to municipalities, developing energy projects and.

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There are incentives that can cover significant portion of project costs up to 50 of project cost.

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There are also state level policies to provide for pilots right now. uh We could. We can under.

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Current law develop up to eight megawatts of generation. These are community scale projects.

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um And those projects directly lower some of the costs of electricity, they can lower some.

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Of the wholesale costs from iso new england, they can lower the need to pay for transmission costs.

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Interstate transmission costs, if you're just buying power from a local generator. You don't.

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Have to pay for shipping power in from out of state essentially, so this is exciting for.

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A number of communities- and it's a it's more on the 12 to 24 month time frame. Well, this will get.

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Serious but I'll just I will note that there are energy developers across the state that are very.

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Eagerly sort of knocking on our doors, saying when are you going to be ready to entertain.

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Contracts with us um and and our understanding is that these these will be financially advantageous.

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And this is more more on that just illustrating some of the the number crunching done by ascend.

C

um But the the base case forecast assumes we just develop one two megawatt project and the city of.

C

Lebanon is looking at building a landfilled gas to energy project. They have a landfill, creates.

C

Natural gas they're in the process of uh building a turbine to generate electricity from that.

C

um Energy source, so that would result in uh you know 350.

C

000 to 500 000 approximately per year in revenue or reduced cost as compared to other options.

C

um And then there's some other scenarios, you know what would it look like if we built eight.

C

Megawatts what would it look like if we lifted the caps on these pilots, um and you know part.

C

Again, part of the benefit of this coalition is that the public advocacy piece and having.

C

Communities have a collective voice in the state house and in the public utility commission, where.

C

Some of these decisions are being made and where there is certainly room for improvement.

C

In in the policy landscape, there are, there are regulatory barriers that could be addressed.

E

Question on the concept of whether it's community power municipalities, working with community power.

E

To build a small scale, generators like that. um Am I correct that the electricity would still.

E

Go into the grid so you're just getting electrons or electricity at the end of the day. Yes, yes and.

C

No, so um part of the reason these projects reduce cost is, if you have a generator in new hampshire.

C

That is plugged into the new hampshire grid that is selling power to a community in new hampshire.

C

In that same grid, and if that generator is putting power online at peak times when power is most.

C

Expensive, it's physically lower in transmission costs, it's physically lowering capacity. It's.

C

Lowering certain aspects of the cost and so we're sort of we're connecting the physical powers value.

C

um And with with the accounting and the finances for that, um so I'm not sure if this really answers.

C

Your question, but yes, it is there, it is accounting, you know it's, it's power goes in to the ocean.

C

Of the grid and power comes out, it's not the identical electron that the customer gets at the.

C

End of the day, but to the degree that we can align local generation and local buyers of that power.

C

We can we can lower costs. Does that answer your question? It does and as a follow-up and you might.

E

Get to this at some point, I know this is nothing like net metering, but a criticism of net metering.

E

Has always been that people who could afford net metering who could afford the solar panels are.

E

Passing on the cost of the utility transmission, so is there any passing out of costs if.

E

Let's say portsmouth does sign up and a number of communities sign up will be passing on the cost.

E

Of transmission to communities that don't sign up, that's a great it's a great question. The answer.

C

Is no, the opposite is true, so right now under certain state laws, if you build a generator and.

C

You lower the transmission cost, you don't get paid for that. Everyone's everyone else is benefiting.

C

And you're not actually getting rewarded for lowering those costs and what we need to do is.

C

uh Actually, comp actually incentivize proper behavior, which is bringing power online when.

C

It is cost effective. Other other examples of this are when you get into sort of a.

C

Virtual power plants, you could have 100 batteries and 100 homes that shift folks.

C

Usage away from peak times- and they should be- uh they should be compensated for that this. We.

C

Are kind of I don't want to get too into the into the weeds of of time of use rates and things like.

C

That but they are an eventual possibility that are associated with these programs.

F

And one other benefit is that, let's say portsmouth wants to build a five megawatt solar field.

F

We could have a contract with the coalition to sell the power.

F

Which would enable us to get a revenue, anticipation, bond and borrow at municipal.

F

Tax-Free rates to build the project, yes and then we and and of course it goes into the coalition.

F

At a purchase below the high fossil fuel costs and gets sold back to our residents right so.

C

These are you we can self-finance through revenue. Bonding yes, um and then I mean a part of this. This.

C

Technical assessment is: when does the coalition get a credit rating um so and another yeah a lot.

C

Of this is the building towards long-term financial ability to finance projects. Yeah.

D

um I don't I'm gonna really leave this. I think for review. If, if.

C

um If the council wants to dig into any of it, um there are some takeaways here, but I think.

C

We've summarized a lot of this: a lot of text on the side. This is more of a. I think, follow-up.

C

um Unless I don't know kevin, you should use anything. You want to call attention.

D

I think you've covered yeah, so we're going to shift we're going to talk about process.

C

um So portsmouth has it's the committee's done a lot of work for uh a year plus a couple of years.

C

um And uh the the plan has has been heard at two public hearings: there's been some public input.

C

The next steps we'll walk through here, but uh there will be the the enabling agreements, those.

C

Are the policies the cost, sharing agreement, member services contract, um the public utility commission.

C

Will have to approve the plan and uh then we'll move into really the procurement and rate setting.

C

So this is illustrating all the the authorization documents on the left. We have the cost, sharing.

C

Agreement, this is a framework. This is ensuring that, to the extent possible, each town will pay its.

C

Fair share and will not pay for costs that another town caused, um so that is, that is a contract that.

C

Will come before the city and you'll likely want to have staff and legal review that and.

C

Fully understand that um and a key point too henry is the startup cost, are more or less going to be.

D

Amortized over a period of time, but any community that comes online over the next five years will.

D

Pay their fair share of the startup costs, so it's it's not just the communities that are going live.

D

This spring, and perhaps next spring, that would pay the startup costs that have occurred over.

D

The past many many months so there's a pretty detailed process in the cost, sharing agreement.

D

That all communities there's a process where they almost repay the communities that paid.

D

Initially so everybody pays their fair share over the first five-year period of startup costs.

C

Thank you, kevin.

C

So portsmouth could execute the cost sharing agreement and there is still no liability.

C

There's still no decision that has been made, the real decision comes in the member services.

C

Contract and that's the contract that says the coalition will provide all of the procurement.

C

And customer service on your behalf and you are authorizing us to work your power for.

C

You and administer the program. There's there's still a trigger where you can bet you can drop.

C

Out before the actual procurement, but that is essentially the contract that.

C

um Authorizes the coalition to be your service provider.

C

On the right, we have the policies that govern all of this. So there's an energy.

C

Portfolio risk management policy: this ensures that we are using industry, best practices and.

C

And how we go into the market, how we hedge power um and there are there- are parameters.

C

And there are financial safeguards there to ensure that there's no risky.

C

um Strategies being used, this relates to the retail rates policy, which is how we set our.

C

Electric rates- and it uh relates to the financial reserve policy, which is how we collect financial.

C

Reserves so there's there's this trade-off right: how much of our benefit go to customer rate.

C

Savings and how much of our benefit accrues in our financial reserve- and this is a direct trade-off.

C

That is addressed in these policies. I'll also just note that there are really three types of reserves.

C

There's a joint reserve which is on behalf of the collective membership and the coalition.

C

Will track exactly what portion of that reserve is associated with each town and city.

C

But the cities and towns can't withdraw from that. It's it's held in joint reserves for the.

C

Collective benefit. There are also excess reserves. If we ever exceed a reserve threshold that will.

C

Be dispersed back to the communities and then there are discretionary reserves.

C

The discretionary reserve is over time, city of portsmouth could say: okay, utility rates, 20 cents.

C

Coalition is giving us 16 cents what, if we made that 17 cents, and we took a cent a kilowatt hour.

C

For our own discretionary reserve fund um to say we want to have a special programmer project to.

C

Invest in the community's energy efficiency, this isn't required, but this is an option that will.

C

Become available as a discretionary reserves at each individual city or town could make.

C

Use of and just to put in a little additional perspective when we talk about excess reserves.

D

It's over 180 days of operating expenses, so the target is for the coalition to always have 120.

D

Days of operating expenses in the reserve and 180 180 days is the top, and once we go above.

D

180 then they are excess reserves and can be passed on to the communities to deposit into.

D

Their discretionary reserve bucket, so that's just when we we talk about the bucket. It's actually.

D

A number of days of operating costs that the the coalition wants to have stashed away at all times,.

C

In another, another key point: I think this was a question that was raised is what is.

C

The what is the term of the agreement, so this member services contract, the blue bottom left.

C

um It has a 36 month term and there are termination provisions, so portsmouth.

C

Could terminate at any time within that 36 month term, provided that no costs are shifted to other.

C

Members so say: portsmouth wants to terminate and there's some cost that would be picked up by the.

C

Other members, you could choose to terminate early and just allocate your portion of the reserve fund.

C

To cover those costs, similarly, you could terminate and say: okay, uh we're gonna, lead the coalition and.

C

After the term expires, the portion of the reserve associated with portsmouth would be.

C

Returned to the city of portsmouth, so you say all right: we're going to leave after this 36.

C

Month, term, and really in in the initial period, you, if you turn in the first year, there's a.

C

24-Month period, but um whatever portion of the reserve that is collected on behalf of.

C

Portsmouth would be returned to the city of portsmouth, so they are euro reserves. They're.

C

Held jointly but they're your reserves, if you wish to take your business elsewhere for some.

C

Reason we don't envision this occurring for any reason, because we think the collective benefit.

C

Of staying with the coalition will will prove out, but it is provided for in these policies.

C

Again, this is this is perhaps more for review because there's a lot of text here, but this is.

C

Detailing how are we barely sharing costs? um What are the different categories of.

C

Cost, what is it general and administrative cost versus actual um cost of procurement?.

C

And and just really emphasizing you know to the to the maximum extent practical.

C

That what uh to councilor denton's question each community and each rate.

C

Payer will pay their share of costs as opposed to paying for other folks costs.

C

And again, this is this is a good reference slide, but this is mapping out the what is.

C

Exactly the process going to look like so we'll go through the sort of colored lines, one by one.

C

um And first the city will adopt the electric aggregation plan.

C

And then in the red, uh the city would consider review and adopt the agreements we just showed.

C

These enabling agreements, the policies, cost sharing agreement, member services, contract.

C

um And within that you, you select an individual who is authorized to.

C

Essentially, cancel to back out um up until the point we execute contracts, the power contracts.

C

um In orange, the risk management committee meets and will uh say here's what the market looks like.

C

Today, we, the you, know, utilities at 20 cents. Cost of power is what the cost of power is. We can go.

C

Into the market and buy power for you at this price and at that point in time, sportsmen can.

C

Decline or can say yes we'll move forward, then there will be a the board will or the committees.

C

Will convene to recommend rates and the board will set and approve the rate, so the board has.

C

Ultimate authority to set the electricity rate, and again this is part of this structure- is.

C

um Giving the can use the oversight, the insight into how do we balance this trade-off?.

C

Of a korean financial reserves and um giving customers discounts on electricity and again.

C

It's it's a long and short-term benefit right, because the way you're going to give customers.

C

Benefit or discounts on electricity in the long term is to build up some reserves early.

C

And then and then customers will be enrolled in the program, and so these next two slides will.

C

Just sort of bringing it back out to the customer facing perspective, we just really went under the.

C

Hood of you know the technical and the financial aspects of how this works behind the scene. What.

C

Does this look like for the customer, uh they'll have a menu of products, they can have that the.

C

Cheapest minimum renewable energy granite basic product uh and that that could be portsmouth's.

C

Default that everyone is enrolled in and then there's a 33 granite, plus renewable energy.

C

And then clean 50 and clean 100, which are which are optional products, any customer could choose.

C

If they wanted to invest in clean energy or or renewable energy credits really um and then on the.

C

Next slide um the there's: this is just summarizing the notification and enrollment process so.

C

After the the proper authorizations are made, um the coalition will issue a mailed notification to.

C

Every electric account 30 days in advance, welcome to portsmouth community power. Here's your cheaper.

C

Rate compared to the utility rate go to this website. If you want to opt out, go to this website.

C

If you want to pick clean, clean, 50 or clean 100., um and the customer can make that decision and.

C

Then, um if you're on competitive supply, if you shop on the market yourself, you'll get that.

C

Notification but you will not be affected unless you affirmatively go to the website and enroll.

C

And uh and then the program will commence and at any point in time there after a customer, could she.

C

Could choose to depart if they would choose to do so, and I think that might be the end of the.

C

Material, so this is just for your reference. These are the key documents. They are hyperlinked in the.

C

Electronic copy um so they're available for review by the city and again, there's there's nine cities.

C

And towns that have adopted the policies and approved the contracts and are and are looking.

C

At an april launch- and um I yeah I'm happy to have any other discussion or questions from the council.

B

Thank you henry any other questions.

B

I said two: how many megawatts does portsmouth use anybody have that idea.

F

It's in our eap, it's in the plan. It is in the plans just a second.

B

And then do we know how many people, uh as a percentage, have opted out of.

B

uh The utilities and gone to competitive suppliers about 20 20 right.

F

And that shows in the survey too, okay and allison.

B

I think you're going to go through the survey data now. Yes, excellent.

B

Do we have another presentation, we do all right. Second,.

F

Just to tee this up as part of building our energy aggregation plan, we wanted to find out uh what.

F

People wanted in a community power program, so this will be the raw feedback from more than 400 people.

F

And I think you'll see surprising demand for the green 50 and and green 100.

F

You'll also see that people want to save money and have more renewable options.

G

Okay, so these results were from the survey that was available for people online from january.

G

19Th to february 8th and then and then it was closed, and this is just a high level overview.

G

And the first couple of questions in the last couple of questions on the survey were multiple.

G

Choice and then there was a section that was where we asked people to rate things.

G

And I'll talk about that separately, but we had 419 participants which we considered to.

G

Be quite good, the far majority were portsmouth homeowners. If you look at the two numbers on the.

G

Right hand: side: first, you have the number of actual people. That said so it was 357.

G

People were homeowners in portsmouth, and that was 85.2 percent of the whole survey number.

G

um Portsmouth tenants were 49 uh 11.7 percent portsmouth landlord was there.

G

Were three of them- 0.7 percent? Of course, with businesses there were two of them.

G

0.5 and then other, which are people that are landlords and homeowners or business owners.

G

And homeowners, so they were, they were multiples and we had eight of those and it was 1.9 percent.

G

So when we asked, who is your electricity supplier, uh the farm majority said eversource.

G

That was 78.5. However, there was 21 percent that have a third party supplier right now.

G

um And then there were two people that didn't know.

G

We asked if your answer to question one was ever source. Why did you make that choice and.

G

um The the big, the largest uh reason given was that they didn't know they had an option and.

G

That was uh 39.9 40 of people. I had no reason to look for. A different supplier was uh 11.7 percent.

G

I tried to switch but could not find a supplier with better rates with 6.7 percent than others.

G

And some of the reasons for other were laziness. Lack of trust didn't know how to switch things.

G

Like that, and that was 21.7 percent of people and then not applicable, that again is the group that.

G

Did not choose eversource, so these are the third party suppliers and that was 20 percent [applause].

G

So, which option would be most important to you in the portsmouth community power uh program.

G

So there were a couple of interesting things on this slide. So if you look at the first line and.

G

The fourth line down the first one was lowest cost energy option, and that was 33.2 percent.

G

But there were actually more people that said the same or lower cost with more renewable energy.

G

Content than I have today, and that was 37 percent of people, then we had a certain group that wanted.

G

50, more renewable energy and some that wanted 100, more renewable energy and that actually turned out.

G

To be about 20 percent of the people as well um other uh people that that answered this question.

G

And said that reliability was very important to them and then two people again didn't know.

G

So this next section, what we asked people to do was to rank from zero to ten with.

G

Zero being the lowest priority and 10 being the highest priority, and then we we took the.

G

Average of those those numbers and the ability to increase energy efficiency and reduced costs.

G

Was the average was about 8.7 on that rating scale, so that was a pretty high priority. The.

G

Next thing was control of energy costs. So again it was 8.7 a pretty high priority and, interestingly.

G

Increased renewable energy sources, including locally generated, was also fairly high at 7.5 percent.

G

Or 7.5 average of that, and so that's just a high level overview that we got from this survey.

G

Thanks allison.

B

Next up, I think we're going to talk about the timeline.

B

Yes, kevin's going to handle that yep and I just mayor I wanted to answer your question.

D

Before in terms of the the stats and it's in the the energy aggregation plan, but the customers in.

D

In portsmouth, right now, that are with the utility with eversource, are close to 13.

D

000 um and that's about a 163 000 megawatt hours, and we have about 2600 that are on competitive.

D

Supply and that's 260 megawatt hours. Those are the larger industrial customers as well.

D

As the municipal municipal accounts are, are counted there, but it's it's um in the eap.

D

All right, so um I'm just going to quickly go over the schedule that would support a june launch.

D

And go to the next slide, so just um I'll go through this pretty pretty quickly. The the.

D

Survey was launched back in january. uh Thank you to allison and to stephanie in the in the.

D

Back row there they they did a teamed up and did a wonderful job on that and I and from.

D

Our experience, I think it's one of the probably the most um uh use survey in the state in terms.

D

Of in this municipality, that's done a survey with over 400 participants, but we had the press release.

D

That went out in january. I think it actually went out a little earlier than january 31st, which was.

D

Helpful we had our two public hearings back on the second and ninth um last friday. The um the energy.

D

Aggregation plan was filed with the puc, and that starts a 60-day clock. They have 60 days to review.

D

The energy aggregation plan and they either can not have any comment and then it's automatically.

D

Approved after 60 days, or they may get back to us with with some some questions, but that's kind.

D

Of the long kind of poll in the tent right now, if you will, we have to wait 60 days for that.

D

um For them to review and approve it, they may approve it earlier, but their track record with.

D

Other communities is they've stuck with the the statute that allows them 60 days.

F

If I could just add to kevin sure the puc's review is is, does this comply with rsa 53e.

F

It's it's not a review of our program and it's merits or anything like that. It's is it. Is it.

F

Legal according to 53e and there's a specific provision that allows cities.

F

And towns to submit that to start the clock before their governing body because obviously.

F

In town meeting towns, you've only got once a year, so we felt that was a wise step.

D

And we have, I don't know a dozen or so communities that have had their plans.

D

Already approved and we're modeling our document after those, so you know, I think, there's a high.

D

Probability that our our plan would get approved without any significant modifications and just to.

B

A quick follow-up: if there is a a question, um does that restart the clock? Yes, if we, if we.

F

Amend the plan, it does restart the clock if it's a minor adjustment henry it does it so yeah. It's.

C

It's if the commission deems it does not comply with the law, then it would restart the clock. Okay,.

D

But we've had henry review our plan, so we're pretty confident so um so then we're on uh on the.

D

Schedule for the 21st uh for approval of the plan to be considered by the council and then we've.

D

Also targeted march 20th for those key governance documents that henry uh mentioned, that those would.

D

Get approved by again, if this is the schedule for a june launch that they'd be approved in the.

D

March time frame and consular table has already passed those documents over to the city attorney.

D

To begin the kind of the acclimation with those documents because they are pretty pretty dense and.

D

um And for us to answer any questions in the meantime, so that was slotted out on the 20th.

D

The original target date for wave one uh if you went back many months was april may and.

D

The coalition was looking to advance that as much as possible. As henry mentioned, the market is very.

D

Favorable right now, there's a lot of headroom there's benefit to communities going earlier. So.

D

um It was moved into the april time frame and when in april is still for the way one communities, the.

D

Eight or so is to be determined, there's final agreements that are getting worked out with the.

D

Utility supplier agreements and the coalition is pressing very hard to to move forward as quickly.

D

As possible, but we're not part of that um if you went out 60 days from last friday, that's april.

D

11Th, so we're just assuming um for the purposes of our schedule and the next day the risk committee.

D

Can meet and consider yes portsmouth. uh We understand you want to move forward. You've.

D

Already signed the member services agreement back in march, we're going to move forward with your.

D

Procurement, one of the things that's different here than the wave one communities this process.

D

Would then allow ascend to go out into the market? Procure come back, there'd, be a rate.

D

Setting process based upon the results of those procurements in this case, we will know the rate.

D

Portsmouth will know the rate, because we'll be going with the rate that the wave one communities.

D

Are using because that's a a february to july rate, so if we went live in june or late may, we'd be on.

D

The rate that the wave one communities are on and then we'd be resetting in august when the utility.

D

Default service, resets and in in august. So at that meeting henry mentioned at april 12th, that's.

D

Where portsmouth could tap the brakes for whatever reason, if there was a reason why we don't want to.

D

Move forward, even though we have signed the member services agreement back in march at that point, in.

D

Time, if, for whatever reason, we get cold feet as a community and don't want to move forward at that.

D

Point we can say we can tap out and say we want to wait. Okay on this schedule for a june launch.

D

Then there's a regular regulatory requirement to give 45-day notice to the puc and to the.

D

Utility that we intend to launch this begins the process where the utility starts to provide.

D

Us with detailed data sets on the customer's usage data customer names, mailing addresses.

D

Etc and then, as as henry mentioned, there's a requirement 30 days out from going live to begin.

D

The notification process of all the electric customers in portsmouth and it's a couple page.

D

Document has a lot of good information. It also has another date in there there's a third hearing date.

D

So 15 days at least 15 days prior to go live you have to have one final public hearing that this is.

D

About to happen, and that date is in the notice that would go out 30 days prior to to go, live.

D

And then we would launch- and on this schedule we would begin in honor about may 28th and.

D

Customers would come on to the program based upon their meter reading schedule, which is roughly a.

D

Four-Week cycle for the utilities, so over about a four week period, all portsmouth customers would.

D

That did not opt out and um and just as a a data point um in a sense, technical analysis and kind of.

D

What happens um in community power aggregations? You might expect maybe five to six percent of.

D

Customers would opt out of a of an aggregation, so that's kind of the the number you'd be looking.

D

At but over a 30-day period, all portsmouth customers would come on and by the end of june,.

D

um All the customers would be up and engaged in the um in the program and they'd be on the same.

D

Rate for july, but just given the timing of when default rates change in the state, they change in.

D

August, so we will, we would have customers come out in in june and july they'd be on.

D

Whatever that rate is, and then there'd be a communication process rates reset.

D

Excuse me, in august of uh of 2023 and there's a strong expectation. We would still continue to.

D

Have rates that are somewhat discounted from the utility rate, whatever those rates are at.

D

That point in time, okay, so there'd be a there'd, be a communication strategy for us, a requirement.

D

Because customers would not be on that initial rate more than two months, because rates reset.

D

In in august and they'd be resetting across the entire state, okay, so that's the schedule that we.

D

Would be on if, as a as a community as a council, you decide to implement in in june any questions.

H

um So if someone had opted out at some point of eversource in his um has signed up with direct.

H

Energy, yes, um does it go smoothly from there too, or is there different rules for different.

H

Companies yeah, so you would, um you know we would encourage any any resident any customer to check.

D

If they have any sort of cancellation fee with a third party, if they wanted to come on to the.

D

Fort smith, community power program, um but they can opt in to the program. The way it works is on.

D

Your meter reading schedule, so you would finish whatever that schedule is for the month and then.

D

You would come on to the to the aggregation program. You can opt out of the community power.

D

Aggregation program at any time- and you can opt in at at any time, but it's it's largely dictated by.

D

What your uh your media reading cycle is: yeah yeah go ahead. Cancer done kevin actually just.

E

Answered my question about opting in at any time, if residents, if we were to move forward with this.

E

And if residents didn't initially want to be part of, it would have that opportunity. Yes, yes,.

D

Yep and one thing there was questions uh the other night I just wanted to mention.

D

um You know for some percentage of a utility customer, there are delinquencies, unfortunately, and.

D

um And so the the utility will continue to collect delinquent receivables initially for.

D

The the community power programs- um it's not, that the we're going to get heavily into some.

D

Sort of collection process as a as a community of power recreation, the utility continues to.

D

Do that process, but there is kind of a deal, a game. Changer, that's going on at the state.

D

Legislators called purchase of receivables where the the utility will take responsibility for even.

D

The supplier receivables and will pass over payments on a monthly basis, just discounted.

D

A delinquency factor so the as a coalition or any competitive supplier in the state. They can count.

D

On the revenues coming all the time and don't have to manage individual collection issues.

D

With customers and then the utility works with the puc to kind of true that up, based on actual.

D

Delinquency rates from from time to time, but as well purchase of receivables, and I think we have.

D

A pretty high degree of confidence that it's going to pass through. So let's the legislature.

D

Here in the not too distant future, which provides it's a good thing, because it provides a steady.

D

Cash flow to competitive suppliers in the state, including the the community power aggregations.

F

So the key dates really are: this coming council meeting will bring you the energy aggregation plan.

F

To approve that- and I can cover some of the key points in it, then we have the march 20th.

F

Vote if we want to move ahead in june, to do the customer.

F

You end user agreement and the cost sharing agreement right.

D

That would be approved counselor in in march right yeah and that that gets us the the agreements.

F

As members that allow them to proceed and then they would start to look at the energy markets,.

F

And then april 11th, hopefully the puc gives us our approval and right after that.

F

We can then say: do we want to launch in june, and if we do, we give the go ahead.

F

And ascend starts to procure power for us and starts the process of the notifications.

F

um Or as kevin says, we could tap the brakes go for next spring. I think we had a lot.

F

Of discussion about this as a committee uh and because it it is an aggressive schedule,.

F

um But we thought number one: there's publicity around the state right now.

F

Because of the first wave, exeter rye neighboring towns, number two, tens or hundreds of thousands.

F

Of dollars of savings for our residents, uh why not start that sooner rather than later,.

F

And number three: um you know: if we waited until spring of next year, we had all we'd.

F

Have all our agreements in place but we'd have to start building all the awareness again.

F

Feel that we'd made some good headway on that.

F

Anything did I miss anything. No, and I would just I I I'm retired now, but I spent my career in the.

D

Utility industry, with northeast utilities and eversource and involved with programs like this in.

D

uh In massachusetts- and you know, you think, I'm a utility guy- why would I be interested in you know.

D

Something like this, but the utilities are kind of switzerland. When it comes to these programs, I mean.

D

They're they're providing power for those that don't choose and they're just passing it through.

D

Without any markup, um these are these programs are a great way to provide another option for our.

D

Residents they'll still have ever source. If they wanted to stay with eversource, they can still go.

D

With a third party supplier and then they'll have the coalition and the co this model here is so.

D

Much more sophisticated than what massachusetts is doing uh in terms of the portfolio model and.

D

The potential for renewable projects- and you know high assurance of having discounted rates.

D

Compared to the utility, so at the end of the day, our residents will have really three really.

D

Strong choices they can do with the coalition, they can stay with their incumbent, utility or.

D

They can go with a competitive supplier and they can move between those. You know our our hope with.

D

The coalition is, we do it well enough that they want to stay with the coalition, but there's not.

D

A a huge amount of risk with a program like this and I think, there's a lot upside for our residents.

B

Councilman, um you talked a little bit about the upfront financing that you're going to need and.

I

How you're going to be paying it back? Do you know the time frame? Do you feel like that? Is it.

I

The five-year time frame that we're talking about before that's all fully turned over.

C

I it's either three or five years. I'd have to double check that it's it's.

C

Yeah it's within three to five time year, uh three, three to five year time frame.

I

um As a user, I I am one of those eight that was a homeowner and a business owner here in town.

I

um So when we have issues with our electricity, just speaking as a sort of resident and person.

I

Who uses it? Who would we then contact? Do we still contact eversource when there's.

I

Outages, you know they always say make sure you tell them, even if your neighbor has so. I just.

I

Want to make sure that's who people should still be contacting is reaching out to ever.

I

Source when there's issues yeah, if there's any reliability or outages, that's ever source and.

C

Then there will be a call center customer support center and if there are questions about well, I.

C

Want the clean 50 or the clean 100, but most yeah anything reliability ever source great. Thank you.

B

Any other questions counselor didn't more common. I just want to extend my kudos to counselor caber.

E

Former counselor lazenby, along with the energy committee members like yourself, kevin and.

J

Allison and thank you for coming henry- I don't know if either of the peters remember this, but.

E

Four years ago I had pushed the council through the cip to purchase. I believe it was renewable.

E

Energy credits as a way to do something- and this has come so far since then. I remember when this.

E

First got discussed, it was just some concept in the sky. I got one of those briefs and to see it.

E

Actually here and possibly be implemented by the city, and uh it's been four years coming so.

B

Council cook, um thank you. um I just wanted to say, as somebody who joined the energy advisory.

J

Committee, just a little over a year ago, I've been incredibly impressed with the work that.

J

This committee has done, and I just want to make sure we publicly thank them for the level of work.

J

And commitment that they have made to getting us to this point in consideration of community power.

F

And I should mention the members, the other members beside allison, who, incidentally, created our logo.

F

Kevin, who is the vice chair of cpcnh, in addition to being on our energy committee, we have tom.

F

Rooney, who is was past chair of one of the city's energy committees, and we have peter samsich.

F

um And ben d'ant antonio, who has a deep background in the energy markets.

F

So um if we, if we can get this going, it's going to be because of those folks and their.

F

Expertise and their commitment and becca o'brien too, was a key member and she had.

D

To step off for some work, she's doing with a new career, but she was a big help too.

B

Any other questions from the council and again, the timeline is this comes up at.

B

The next uh the next council meeting, the 21st 22nd 21st.

B

um And then, which is a tuesday, um then we uh we can approve it. It goes to the puc and is stated.

B

Multiple times uh tonight, that's not that doesn't mean that that's the the final uh go or no-go, but.

B

That means they approve the plan. We can then uh still decide whether or not to adopt the plan.

B

Ask the coalition to buy rates for us. That would then put us in the june time frame and then in.

B

August on there there's a resetting of the rates and that resetting the rates would be. Is that a.

B

I guess is that a resetting for eversource or resetting for our own customers? Well it the.

D

Utilities reset in august and so we're following them once we know what their rate is we'll know.

D

It probably in the june time frame that then we're able to to to beat it and set a rate that it beats.

D

The rate as of august 1st and that'll go through january and then it'll reset again in um in.

D

February- and we didn't talk too much too- there is a communication outreach program that kind of runs.

D

In parallel uh between now and june, leveraging about a lot of the work that henry's henry's.

D

Kind of helps, lisa, sweet from rye and and henry head up the membership committee and are working.

D

With the communities and we'll we will uh not be bashful about stealing all the good communication.

D

Work that they've done with other communities uh to bring it bring them through launch.

F

Yeah we're not on our own for that. We get a lot of support in the outreach effort, print.

C

Did handouts materials, posters, um all sorts of things yeah, and this is all uh ports and.

B

Physicians will be automatically opted in yes to the program unless they are a already using.

B

Another energy provider, and then they would need to opt in themselves correct, correct, correct, okay,.

B

All right, I guess now we'll open it up to any public comment. If there's no other questions.

B

Anybody can walk up state, your name and.

B

City of residence and reports of business go first.

E

777 middle road: I have one question to ask the upkeep of the equipment that supplies all of.

G

This is it going to change any. I can answer that. So uh typically, we don't it's not a q, a.

B

So we'll we'll have a discussion after this, but that's um let's appreciate the question. Roy okay.

K

I'm glad to know questions will come later. I had a question as well, but I also just.

K

Wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for doing this and just share my praise.

K

For all this work, um I had time elizabeth blasel, I'm a portsmouth homeowner. I had to move away to.

K

California, for a year for my job, where we were opted in to a similar program and saw tremendous.

K

Benefits for the community as well as growth of clean renewable energy, and we saw it spread.

K

I shouldn't say like wildflower fire in california, because that's a really bad reference, but like.

K

You know it's spread in a very good way, um so, basically, like all around la it all started in.

K

Oi california and started spread it around spraying around so just really excited to.

K

Come home and I felt like I was going to bring a new idea, but it turns out you guys were already.

K

Working on it, so so thanks very much for that. I, I would highly encourage us to think about.

K

The default being to a higher percentage, renewable energy, um because it's incredible the effects it.

K

Has in the local community to build a more reliable and clean source of energy, so that.

K

Was the case in in ojai, where I lived, it was a 100 percent clean renewable energy, prod product.

K

Product that was the default opt-in, so you could go lower, but the power in keeping the default.

K

Higher meant that there was more investment in local, clean, renewable energy, so I would just.

K

Highly encourage that I was one of the ones going pretty high on the survey for renewable energy and.

K

Then I do have some questions, but I also wanted to just throw this out there for consideration too. I.

K

Don't know how it it would could work in, but I am also a power generator. I have solar energy.

K

All over my home and I contribute that back to the community through net metering and right now I am.

K

Forced to either sell or give away my renewable energy credits to the utility, so eversource is.

K

Currently buying my renewable energy credits- and I don't want- I don't want to give it to them, but.

K

I would very be very happy to give that those renewable energy credits to a community energy.

K

Program- and so there are others like me in town too, and I don't know how that could all tie in.

K

And hopefully lead to a higher renewable energy default. But it's something that I was sort of.

K

Made aware about when I was trying to not sell my rex, it would be automatically kind of donated.

K

To the utility- so maybe I blended a little bit into question but wanted to throw that out. There.

K

When I had the chance, thank you very much. Thank you very much elizabeth and welcome home thanks.

L

Pastor kennedy, 41 pickering ave and I have to say to councilor tabor. I think I found another thing.

L

For sherburne school, maybe maybe some solar panels out there, a solar farm that might help you all.

L

um I would like to state that I wish this powerpoint had been put up online.

L

um It was very detailed, it was very hard to read- and I am I was hoping to hear from henry tonight-.

L

What was the um the the he said? He didn't want to go in the weeds about payment structure and stuff.

L

Like that, but that was some of the stuff I was hoping to hear my questions come in the form of.

L

I know um I do happen to be quite familiar, owning some land in western new york with.

L

um Solar farms and I'm really worried about infrastructure. I have heard all the research.

L

You've done that infrastructure is very archaic, it is old, and so I guess my question is: who pays.

L

For that who is going to pay for the upgrades, if we pull everyone away from a certain entity,.

L

Now I realize that a lot of people on the committee and people that are even sitting here.

L

Are connected to eversource, so I'm not sure what the family genetics to all that is, I'm not sure.

L

What responsibility the city is going to have financially? I haven't figured that out. I heard.

L

That peter is on the committee, so I'm assuming part of his salary. Our time is considered in this.

L

But I haven't heard for those taxpayers and you know I guess I kind of look at all payments as a.

L

Tax, I haven't heard what the city is going to have to pay for those people that opt out that might.

L

Still have some, even it might be micro amount of their taxes going to this entity or this resource.

L

I like the fact that we're thinking about using more local sources.

L

But I do worry about some of the information that I've been hearing um like now in new jersey, where.

L

The wind power out in the ocean, um it's too costly and there's even been some talk from what I've.

L

Heard this is gossip on the street that um some of the businesses are even trying to pull out of.

L

um Potential wind power off our own shores, so I guess my question is: is what is this group doing.

L

Or this entity I haven't even figured out the entity, part of it who is running, who, to be honest,.

L

With you, I heard tonight that we've got some posters, we got some nice cards, we have a call.

L

Number, if you are want some more information about the thing. But if you have a problem with your.

L

Power source and you're going to go right back to average horse.

L

So I'm really kind of confused about who's running the show and how does that all work.

L

um But what kind of resources? No one has explained, what kind of resources we have that are more green.

L

And what is coming? I know we have someone power. I saw the blades going up to the north country.

L

But I also know in western new york, where we have wind power on farms, the blades break pretty easily.

L

What is this, where is the green power coming from? That is going to really make this a benefit.

L

Because if we don't get that benefit, then I'm not sure what really the benefit and why the city is.

L

Involved so I guess I'm missing all those notes I couldn't see tonight. The powerpoint we had did not.

L

Get ahead of time- um and I hope that it gets put up on the city website and I hope that the night.

L

You guys vote on this. You have a public hearing, so people can have or we can get information.

L

On all these kinds of concepts, because it is still to a couple people that have approached me.

L

Into my own knowledge, I mean I read the rsa and it says that you have 30 days after you.

L

Put submit the after the plan is accepted to let the public know in 15 days I saw all that.

L

But before the plan even goes forward, when do the public speak.

L

At a council meeting, so I'm hoping that you consider that I'm hoping you can tell me where.

L

The screen power is going to be coming from, I'm hoping that you can tell me the cost and what is.

L

Associated with the cost for the city, and I'm hoping you can also tell me.

L

What who's running the whole show, so those are some things that I haven't been able to.

L

Find and I've looked at the rsas and I've tried to go online, but again I'm hoping that we get.

L

The information and it's not in a vacuum, so we can all have a look at it. Thank you.

B

Thank you esther for those watching at home. uh The presentation is up on the city website.

B

Under the city agenda for this evening, so you can click on that and follow along.

M

Okay good evening, peter huda, 280 south street first I'd like to uh thank the committee for.

M

Allowing me to speak for kind of an unlimited time. On last thursday, I had a lot of questions.

M

I too was looking for the answers um in a presentation and uh it would have been.

M

Nice, if that was up there, um I went into a lot of the details, detailed questions.

M

Last week- and uh I was hoping that some of the questions would be answered there.

M

um I think the main thing for the people of portsmouth to understand is.

M

um That you, the nine people on the council, will be voting to opt 22 206 people into this plan.

M

And I I would hope um that you have done your homework at the point. That point in time.

M

um I have gone over the rsas that were included um for this presentation and.

M

um The the numbers from your surveys are 419 out of 2000 or 22 206 people don't know. What's.

M

Going on here so um I would really hope that you would do a notification and discuss this.

M

In public and uh kind of follow the rsas on that, uh I would also um like for henry or.

M

um To actually explain so, everybody on the council understands about uh additional projects.

M

um The the discussion on the in the original presentation way back in august of 21, I believe.

M

um When the city requests a wind farm, solar farm, anything outside of the regular services.

M

I believe henry said that all of the cost to that will be billed only to the city.

M

um Tonight we heard that we will get expertise uh in reviewing the plans and.

M

Stuff like that from the from the from the consortium, but as far as any cost on that.

M

um If I understand it correctly, the cost to that will only be able to come out of this.

M

Plan if you have reserves- and I I also asked what the term of the contract was on on last wednesday-.

M

Thursday and uh that was answered tonight, thank you very much. um My question is since this is.

M

Basically, a startup you're going to have a bunch of startup costs that I have to are going to have.

M

To be included in this, so you'll have your raw energy cost. You'll have your overhead and then.

M

um The it sounded like tonight, you said that there will be two types of reserves: one for.

M

um Basically, the coalition with any any amounts over the the amount of.

M

The raw material or the raw cost and the um and the overhead so portsmouth.

M

uh Will not get to do any reserves until after that correct me if I'm wrong henry, but.

M

um That would be um a concern with everybody kind of getting excited about doing our own projects.

M

And and getting on the getting on the bandwagon with this, so um I I really kind of wanted.

M

Everybody to understand what the cost structure is and when the revenues will start building.

M

um As such, um the only other thing, I asked a lot of questions last week and a lot of them were.

M

Answered thank you very much. um I also noted in the rsa that it it says specifically that.

M

Taxpayers will who have opted out or who aren't going to opt in? I I don't. I I've already opted out.

M

Of eversource, so I I will not be included, I'm with the 2000 602.. So my question is: um it says that.

M

um The people who are not involved in this will not be paying any charges well. I said this on.

M

The other night and I'll say it again: if you have one of our staff people on this commission.

M

I.E, peter that is a charge to the to the taxpayers. We are paying the salaries of all of the staff, so.

M

um I urge you to um think about who you put on here and what effect that will have, and uh I think.

M

The questions for uh net metering uh were answered last last thursday ma'am. If you would care to.

M

Watch the video um it that was a very interesting discussion and uh I would urge the council to.

M

Also understand that and how it affects people who are already doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Petra.

B

Any other questions.

B

Seeing none um thank you again, everyone for for coming out. I think that it is a unique time where.

B

The the inefficiencies of the utilities have been highlighted to a point in terms of that, a one it's.

B

Gotten people's attention, but two it showed how there's an opportunity to beat those prices now.

B

The transmission price and the the cost of keeping the power lines up you know that's still going to.

B

Stay with with eversource and so folks at home that are concerned about having a call the city.

B

Of portsmouth to fix their uh their electrical lines, uh fear not eversource is still going to.

B

Be in charge of the transmission and delivery charges of this, but this allows us as the city.

B

To join other cities in providing a lower rate and more options in terms of what you procure and I'm.

B

Really excited about this and again I thank the committee for the work that they've done.

B

Getting us to this point and expect more people to as we get closer and have uh more meetings on.

B

This to be as excited as I am to be able to lower energy costs and provide more options. That seems.

B

Like decisions that that should be made uh for portsmouth, and I look forward to this conversation.

B

Continuing at the next council meeting, so thank you very much good night portsmouth. Thank you.