City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Mayor's Blue Ribbon Energy Advisory Committee, 6 Feb 2023

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From YouTube: 2.2.2023 Portsmouth Energy Advisory Committee

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2.2.2023 Portsmouth Energy Advisory Committee

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The february 2nd 2023 meeting of the portsmouth energy advisory committee and tonight we're going.

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To have a short meeting and then a public hearing on the energy aggregation plan that.

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This committee has been working on for many months, I'll call the roll counselor, kate cook.

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Kevin charette here, tom rooney, here ben d'ant, antonio president and lisa um allison tanner here.

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Excuse me, um we do have some past minutes. Has everybody had a chance to read those.

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Do we have a motion to approve d? Do you want, do you want both of them together or do you want.

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To do it separately, uh let's do them separately. I make a motion that we approve the minutes of.

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Wednesday january 18th, 2023. seconded all in favor all right, okay and we're looking for a motion for.

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The next set of minutes I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of wednesday january 25th.

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2023., okay! Is there a second second all in favor, all right? Okay, um our next.

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uh Order of business is to open a public hearing on the portsmouth energy aggregation plan.

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um In order to take advantage of rsa 53e, which is the community power act, each city or municipal or.

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Town has to have its own energy aggregation plan, which requires two public hearings before going.

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To the governing body, in our case, we're going to have a hearing tonight and we're going to have a.

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Hearing a week from tonight february, 9th if you're watching at home and have input you'd like to give.

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There's two more opportunities: there'll be a city council work session february, 13th.

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And that's designed to educate the council before they vote on february, 21st and february 21st.

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Will be a vote to consider and approve the energy aggregation plan and that's the major step in our.

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Timeline which we'll hear about tonight to develop a community power program.

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Just one minute of remarks: we all know that we pay a lot for our electricity.

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Some would say too much for our electricity and we all know that the electricity we buy.

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Is by and large fossil fuels driven- and it's been this committee's work, this committee's quest in a.

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Sense to see if we can use rsa 53e to aggregate our residential and business demand as a city.

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Enter the power markets and find see if we can get more competitive supply of power.

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And more of that power, that's renewably powered, and this committee's done wonderful work and it's.

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A very good committee examining all the ways that we could do: community power. We looked at.

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The broker model, which is in use in keene and other cities, and then we looked at joining the.

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Co community power coalition of new hampshire, which we found to have significant advantages.

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Cpcnh is now comprised of 27 towns. It's a non-profit by communities for communities.

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And will enable a lot of the cities and towns in the state to aggregate their residential and.

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Business demand and um get more competitive rates and get more renewables, um the eap that we have.

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Will outline all of the steps the city would take as a partner and member of the coalition.

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And I think that you'll see tonight what we believe are substantial benefits and the last.

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Thing I'd say is: there are benefits for the short term, we think in better rates and those.

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Will not be dramatically better rates, maybe in the five to seven and a half percent range.

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um But we'll also be able to meet the demand that we know from doing surveys.

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Of the community is there to buy green power and make a difference in how you operate. Your house.

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And how you buy your electricity and right now, the majority of people are not taking advantage.

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Of ways to do that, because it's cumbersome and hard- and this can make that much easier and help.

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Move us as a city towards our sustainability goals. So with that we're going to have a presentation.

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About community power and we're happy to welcome henry herndon from the community power course.

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Very good, thank you. Councilor tabor, I'm henry herndon, I'm a consultant with community.

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I'm henry herndon, I'm a consultant with community power coalition, new hampshire and.

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I'll be providing an overview of the portsmouth electric aggregation plan and community power more.

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Broadly in the statewide nonprofit coalition, that is supporting those 27 towns that were mentioned.

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By councilor tabor um and are we going to have, I guess the presentation will be live here. Great.

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So I think that was a really excellent, uh summary and and sort of introduction and overview.

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um Before we dive into the the meat of what is the electric aggregation plan and what will.

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Portsmouth community power, be. I will just note that presently, eight members of the coalition.

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um There are four in the upper valley, hanover lebanon, plainfield enfield, a couple neighbors.

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Here in the seacoast, including rye and exeter, and then a couple others over in the monadnock region,.

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Peterborough on walpole, they are all primed and ready to initiate some of the first programs in.

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The state this spring and to commence service and begin providing cheaper electric rates to.

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The collective residents and businesses um and portsmouth is positioned along with a number of.

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Other communities, including potentially durham dover, the city of nashua town of harrisville,.

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uh To be fast followers and could potentially commend service later this spring with other.

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Opportunities after that to start the actual program. So just in terms of timing and in the.

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Commencement of these programs, that's a little bit of background there beyond.

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That there are the additional 15 members of the coalition that are likely to bring their.

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Programs online within the next year or so and and more likely in in the spring of 2024.

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So uh yeah we can start moving through some of the content here.

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So we'll talk about um what is community power, we'll talk about the electric aggregation plan.

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We'll talk about the non-profit statewide coalition and then we'll talk a little.

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Bit more about the timeline, oh that's helpful. That's great! Thank you! Kevin.

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uh So yeah we can move on to the next slide.

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So, as was described, these are programs that pool or aggregate the collective buying power.

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Of customers, within a municipality with the objective of lowering electric costs and.

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Creating more access for renewable energy, as has been discussed, this is all made possible under.

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A recent update to new hampshire legislation, rsa 53e and the intent is really to further.

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Democratize and expand local control over energy decision making, so cities and towns really have.

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A say in in what they want to achieve, with their energy procurement and with their energy decisions.

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So local control access to markets and to create more opportunities and create space for innovation.

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Essentially, community power is allowing each city or town to become the default electricity.

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Provider, so there are three aspects of this: the first is that economy of scale that bulk power.

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Procurement, where the the collective residents and businesses come together, they get buying.

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Power in the market, and they have greater choice in in how they want to exercise that buying power.

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Importantly, the utility company eversource will continue to own and operate the distribution.

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Grid they'll deliver the power they'll ensure they will ensure grid reliability. They will.

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Continue to be compensated for that core and essential service, and that remains largely.

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Unchanged so the customer still gets the bill from eversource. The only difference.

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Is the actual source of the power is now up to the the decisions of the community.

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And um the final piece is the the the benefits that can accrue and that could be anything from.

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The lower rates which we see demonstrated in other markets, but then giving more of a menu of options.

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So any individual resident could choose through portsmouth community power. Maybe I want to choose.

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The 50 or the 100 green power option there are also opportunities for the city over time through.

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The coalition to begin to source power from local generators or develop local clean energy projects.

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To then provide power to the portsmouth community power portfolio and we see other markets really.

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Really driving innovation, so things like energy storage or programs for electric vehicle charging.

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These are some of the longer term potential benefits that we expect to realize through.

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Portsmouth, community power and other programs, if that is a motivating factor for the community.

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Foreign discussed some of these, but um just to reiterate briefly, the benefits really.

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Being local control and giving communities a seat at the decision-making table of of.

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um What what they want to achieve with their energy procurements, we see the other states.

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Demonstrating lower electric rates through these programs, we see the greater ability to have.

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Communities say in development of local, clean energy generation that has an economic benefit.

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Within the state or within the community and some of those innovations I mentioned, you know, there's.

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A lot of exciting things going on in the power sector in terms of using new technologies using.

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Battery storage, using data and price signals time of use rates, and these things can all be.

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A mechanism to give customers greater control to empower customers with new technologies and.

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Resources that will lower costs collectively for everyone and those things can be made.

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Readily available through the development of these programs over time- and I I will just note that the.

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Portsmouth plan makes clear that this program will only launch as if it is able to initially offer.

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Residential default rates that are lower than or competitive with eversource, so there's a control.

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In there to ensure that at launch the program will have lower electric rates, I'll just spend a.

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Moment on um why these programs can deliver lower rates, so the utility is really it's encumbered by.

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A regulated procurement schedule, the state and the regulators require that every source goes and buys.

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Power twice a year at fixed points in time, that's cumbersome. It prevents the utility from taking.

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Advantage of favorable market conditions and other competitive entities are unregulated entities can.

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Have a more nimble approach to buying power, they can manage a portfolio of different contracts that.

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They choose to enter into at different times. This is the approach the coalition or community power.

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Can take advantage of uh and other entities like the new hampshire electric co-op are a.

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Good sort of model of demonstrating this kind of approach as consistently delivering rate savings.

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So into sort of the what it looks like from a customer perspective.

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We all get an electric bill here in portsmouth from eversource and.

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um That bill is broken into two portions electricity supply shown in the blue on.

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The left and then the delivery shown in the green on the right. The delivery charge is.

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The ever source charge, that's the pulls and wires. That remains entirely unchanged.

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Right now, anyone can choose where they want their energy supply to come from any individual customer.

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Can make that choice, and there are advantages to that. This program provides a layer of sort.

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Of consumer protection and the ability to to give those benefits to all the residential.

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Customers that are typically only used by larger energy users. So if we go to the next slide.

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uh This is sort of the next page of the bill and it breaks down that supply versus delivery.

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And really the only thing that changes from a customer perspective is instead of eversource.

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Being the default electricity supplier now portsmouth community power has a say in where.

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That power comes from and that will be represented on the bill for the customers and henry just one.

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Folks are looking at this bill. It's old and the supply component on our electric bill is.

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Certainly more than the distribution side now, so if you went back to the prior slide, it shows.

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Distribution as being 83 dollars in supply being 62 and in today's environment, that's.

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Kind of it it flops the supply. The rates have gone up so significantly yeah in new hampshire.

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Right, that's a good point, so um some of that material could be updated, but yeah we're in a.

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Pretty high price environment right now, and it's also a pretty advantageous time to implement one.

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Of these programs, because of the sort of high price environment that the utility is stuck in.

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Right now, prices are going to fall this spring and it's a it's a good time to enter the market.

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As we sort of come out of this really high priced environment, so there's an opportunity.

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For customer savings, particularly in the the spring time frame this year,.

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Our next, so I'm just going to reiterate some of the key points eversource owns the grid delivers.

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The power that remains unchanged um and this plan, if approved by city council, will authorize but not.

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Require the city council to implement the program, it'll authorize the city council to enter into.

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Contracts with service providers that they would choose to carry the program forward and implement.

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It um and then again, participation is voluntary. Any individual customer can choose at any point.

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In time not to participate in opt out so prior to enrollment, they can choose not to participate, go.

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To a website or call up customer service line or a number of other mechanisms. And then even after.

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The program is live, they can leave with no fear penalty at the end of their monthly billing cycle.

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So that's the summary of the the broader community power.

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um Approach and then we'll talk a little bit more about the electric aggregation plan.

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So under the the rsa, the city council is required to create a committee that develops and prepares a.

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Plan and brings that, through with public hearings, which is what has occurred here and the city.

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Council tasked this committee with preparing that plan, which is available online for review.

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And this is the first of the two public hearings described by councilor tabor.

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Some key points you know is is laying out the broader goals and objectives of the program.

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It uh defines the governance, and you know, gives city council the authority to to have.

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Governance and oversight over this program and summarizes how it would be implemented. There's.

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Some like regulatory and legal requirements, you have to treat all customers fairly and.

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Equally, in in the same customer classes, you have to meet certain environmental.

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Requirements under state law there's a minimum renewable energy requirement that you have to.

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Meet you have to describe how you will address things like net metering, customers, customers who.

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Own rooftop, solar generation and they feed some of that electricity back into the grid as well.

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As customers on electric assistance programs, they, these are folks who are income qualified.

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To receive a discount on their electricity rates, they, as described in the program, can continue to.

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Receive those discounts in in their benefits there will not be affected by this program.

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And then importantly, the plan doesn't commit the city to doing anything. It just gives the city the.

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Authority to implement a program if it finds it is in the best long-term interests of the community.

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I'll also note there's no financial commitment, so these programs are not under law. They're.

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They're not allowed to be funded by taxpayer dollars, they are funded rather through the.

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Sale of electricity through the electricity rate so participating customers pay for that.

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Electricity rate, the vast majority, goes to pay for the energy supply and then.

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There are portions of that energy supply charge, whether you're buying it from eversource, whether.

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You're buying it from a competitive supplier, whether you're buying it from community power that pay for the overhead pay for the service providers that are supplying you with that power.

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uh This slide just shows the outline of the chapters. It's uh there's a lot of really.

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Good educational material, so I encourage folks to go to that link and read the plan.

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um And the main body it there's five chapters but they're fairly brief. uh You know the introduction.

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The overview a summary of the coalition, the goals and objectives, and then what is required by law.

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To be in in the plan, there are also a number of educational attachments that have a lot of good.

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Sort of context on background on legislative stuff and uh some of the the details of.

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um How how some of the technical services will be implemented.

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So some key terms, so I've used this term default electricity provider. This is a key term right.

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Now, there's a default, it is the investor owned, regulated monopoly utility eversource and they.

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Provide that sort of regulated six-month supply rate that tends to be have a little.

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Bit of added cost in it, this is the new default, where any customer who's on that.

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Ever source rate would then be enrolled in the portsmouth community power default unless they.

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Chose a different supply option, which choice would they would continue to have that choice.

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um Customers would be able to opt in to products above the default, and that's potentially that.

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Clean 50, a 50, renewable product, clean 100, 100, renewable and then again, potentially.

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Over time, there's this opportunity to expand products, whether that is power source from a.

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Local generator or things like you know, we see some of the more mature markets again looking at.

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Deploying battery storage and into homes for resiliency purposes that can also you know, shift.

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Your usage away from high cost times to low-cost times time of use rates. We don't need to get.

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Into the weeds on these things, but for us energy geeks, they could be exciting opportunities.

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um And uh let's see what else what other points here um I mentioned the self-funded through the.

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Rates, no taxpayer funds um and the the city having the overall governance authority and being able to.

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Execute contracts for services I just would add to um all of this- is in the energy aggregation plan.

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And that's with the agenda tonight on the city website. Also, if you just google city of portsmouth,.

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Energy aggregation plan: you should be able to read the whole document. It's about 67 pages, very good.

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Let's see: okay, yes, so this is a key slide. The customer and notification and enrollment process.

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This is all uh standard and required by law, but if and when the city of portsmouth gets to jumps.

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Through all the hoops brings, this plan to city council reviews, it approves it and then does.

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Due diligence and decides to move forward with a service provider, what would happen was is every.

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Customer in the city of portsmouth would receive a mailed notification says welcome to portsmouth.

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Community power here is our electric rate compared to eversources electric raid, we're going to save.

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You money on on your power. Here's some information about the program and here are your instructions.

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If you want to choose to not participate, go to this web link call this phone number send.

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An email to this account or this address and you can opt out. um This notice- will go to all electric.

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Customers, importantly, the customers who already shopped for power with a competitive electric.

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Power supplier, they will remain unaffected and they will continue to be a part of that program.

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That they're already in they could choose to opt into the program if they would want to.

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um And then, similarly, because this is the new default as new utility customers on come online,.

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They would periodically be notified and give them the option to opt out or be enrolled into.

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The program and again voluntary any any customer, could choose to leave the program without penalty.

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This slide just shows an illustrative example of what some of the product options would be.

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And again, those first eight communities are are likely going to have these all available to them.

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With fixed rates and prices in just a few short months, so portsmouth could choose. For example,.

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To have granite basic, which would be likely the cheapest default product with the minimum amount.

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Of renewable energy, as allowed by state law or granite plus, which is a higher renewable.

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Energy content that it could be offered on a default basis to the customers and then, as I as.

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I mentioned previously any customer could choose um a 50 or 100 green product if they wanted to.

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um Sort of act with their dollars to invest in a clean energy future.

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Okay, so the coalition um this is the community governed uh new non-profit.

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Power supplier that was created very recently just uh october 1st 2021. It was incorporated.

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um And it's it's for communities by communities. It was created by an initial 14 new hampshire.

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Cities and towns that membership has since grown to 28 cities, towns and counties, and it represents.

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A significant portion of the state population, so it's it's more than 20 percent, perhaps 21 of the.

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Population of the state is represented in those members and that's approximately 125 000 electric.

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Customers, significant volume of electricity, uh and that translates to approximately 140.

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Million dollars in annual revenue, so um this just is to represent the buying power of these.

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Communities collectively and importantly through this non-profit coalition model.

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The revenue and the cash flow associated with the sale of electricity to these customers.

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Is controlled and overseen by those members collectively, so each member portsmouth included.

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Appoints representatives to the board of directors of community power coalition, so kevin turret and.

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um Peter rice, our representatives to the board of directors of the coalition, we also have lisa.

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Sweet from rye, who is on the board uh and these community leaders, they uh are overseeing the.

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Startup of the agency, all of the you know they set the budget. They've run the solicitations.

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To hire service providers and when um power begins to flow in these initial communities,.

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The sort of quote unquote: net profit from the sale of electricity will be accrued in financial.

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Reserves controlled by these communities and held on their behalf, I think, there's a slide.

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That gets to this point, so I might just hold my comments. Let's see is that yeah, I'm gonna.

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Hold my comments on that, but that's it's! It's a exciting benefit for participating communities.

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um I described sort of the 8 to 12 communities that are looking at going live this spring and.

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Then there's an additional 15 that are running on the field towards 2024 launch.

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This slide just uh illustrates those collective community leaders that are sitting on the board.

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Of directors- and you know providing the governance and oversight to this new agency.

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um And I'll just note: there's a real breadth and depth of experience and expertise.

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We have um former representatives and senators and regulators, former utility.

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Executives, business entrepreneurs who have founded energy companies, attorneys engineers.

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Just forrester, you know, policy professionals, there's a really great breadth and depth from.

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All across the state folks who have worked in oil and gas folks who've worked in renewables.

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Academia- and you know they're coming together in the board and it's committees to to put this into.

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Motion so there's real involvement from all of the participating communities from across the state.

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So that was sort of governance. This slide is really about operations.

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um And the expert contractors that have been enlisted through the coalition's.

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Competitive solicitations, through its request for proposal for services and credit support.

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So there's a number of service categories- ascend analytics, will manage power, procurement and.

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Really: energy portfolio risk management, they're responsible for monitoring the wholesale market.

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Day-To-Day week month to month and then recommending the most advantageous power.

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Contracts to be entered into on behalf of these communities.

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Calpine energy solution and a number of these firms have extensive experience, providing.

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Services to other community power agencies across the country and to you know some of.

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The largest utilities in the company and energy service companies in the country, so as a really.

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The the solicitation process really drew a lot of excitement from the industry and it was quite.

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A competitive pool so there's there's some great talent that is supporting this endeavor.

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Calpine energy solutions- that's retail customer services, primarily as well as the load serving.

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Entity services, but that's uh there's, there's data exchange and data management required with.

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The utility companies close partnerships with the utilities really to receive customer data on.

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And to bill customers through the utility company um clean energy, new hampshire is.

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A local non-profit that is supporting some of the engagement with cities and towns across the state.

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There's a couple of great law firms, a couple of startup consultants, including myself and samuel.

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Golding of community choice, partners who's been a real leader in in helping to um start this model.

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Up here in the state- and you know, accounting and banking services, so river city bank, providing.

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Banking services and there's also a an ongoing search for the ceo of the coalition.

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So that is likely to come to resolution, uh potentially in march, which is exciting.

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Okay, so this is something I mentioned briefly previously.

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About the accrual of reserve funds so on the left, this pie chart is illustrating a typical bill. The.

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Gray portion being the eversource delivery charges that remain unchanged, and then the blue portion.

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Being the energy supply charges that are now controlled by the communities under this model,.

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If you take that blue part of the pie chart and you move over to the bar chart, the bar chart is.

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Representing only the energy supply, the blue portion of that bar chart, that's the and again.

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This is illustrative um the blue portion of that bar chart. That's the the dollars.

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That are flowing to the purchase of electricity, there's a thin gray bar. That's the overhead. The.

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Cost of whether it's your competitive electric power supplier or whether it's the coalition's.

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Vendors there's an overhead cost in everybody's electric bill. That's built into that electric bill.

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The green bar on top is the accrual of reserves, so if this was purchasing power from a.

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A private competitive electric power supplier that green bar would represent the 8 12 15 percent net.

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Profit that that company is is accruing for their services under the coalition model. That represents.

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Reserves that are accrued by these communities and held on their behalf through the coalition.

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In reserve for those communities benefit it's important for a couple of reasons. The first.

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Is that by capturing that net profit or those reserve funds, you can maintain rate stability.

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Over time, so, if the market changes, you can sort of lean on your rainy day fund in the reserves.

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Over time, uh moreover, that those reserve funds can be used to leverage investment into local projects.

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And programs, some of these community power agencies are contracting to develop community.

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Scale generation renewable energy projects in their neighborhood or in their state, some of them.

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Are investing in enhanced energy efficiency programs for residents and businesses to to.

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Further lower electric bills, so there's a lot of possibility for what can be achieved through.

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Those reserve funds and again I just want to sort of qualify this again, it says like 10,.

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Cent supply rate on this chart, this was created before the market spiked to, I think 22 cents for.

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Eversource right now- and this is really just an educational graphic- if folks are interested there.

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Is a technical assessment by ascend analytics that has a real breakdown of of the financial.

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Forecast of the coalition that's much more detailed and that could be made available.

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uh This is just really summarizing some of what we've discussed, but um if you look at the green.

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Part of this graphic, this is showing portsmouth community power. The committee developing the plan.

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Offering that plan to city council for approval uh and what city council's job is to approve.

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That plan, after doing its due diligence, but also appointing the representatives to the coalition.

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Board of directors, so that's sort of the down in the blue represents the coalition. These are.

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This is the the community governed board and the expert service providers that manage all.

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Of the the technical back end of buying power into and supplying it to, customers.

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um And really just providing the comprehensive services to run the program.

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So the coalition will purchase power in the iso new england market eversource will deliver that.

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Power- and uh you know bill of customers and meter electricity and all the things that eversource.

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Does in that power flow back to the residents and businesses and then the last piece here is there.

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Is a state approval? The public utility commission has to approve this electric aggregation plan.

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Henry yes, so just just a quick question: uh you were talking.

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Before about the the net profits being as a reserve fund for various activities,.

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How how does the coalition or what role does the coalition have with regard to new hampshire, saves.

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Which is the energy efficiency programs of the utilities? It's a good question at present. None and.

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um What's being referred to is that all of us on our electric bills pay a small amount of.

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Money every month into a an nh saves fund that utilities then administer to help folks invest.

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In more efficient lighting or heating systems or weatherizing their buildings- and this is all under.

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The the objective of lowering costs overall, if we can, you know, use less energy than we'll save.

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Money by not having to expand infrastructure in the future, so right now the coalition will have.

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Nothing to do with that, however. In massachusetts, there is a community power program. Cape like.

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Compact out on cape cod, and rather than the mass saves or their nh saves funds going to.

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Eversource to then eversource distribute among the communities in cape cod. That money goes to.

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Cape like compact, which is sort of the equivalent of community power coalition, and they then deploy.

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Those funds for energy efficiency projects and programs within their communities, so there's.

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Examples of crossover, there's that doesn't exist in any way in new hampshire at present.

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So timeline um this committee has has been doing a lot of work the past year.

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Perhaps a year plus on on researching this on integrating and connecting.

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With communities across the state and and working with the coalition as committees.

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And um developing this draft plan, this is, as we discussed, the first of two public hearings.

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With the next being a week from today and after those public hearings, the plan could be brought.

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To city council for the vote- and I understand, there's also a city council work session.

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And after the plan is adopted and also approved by the state within the 60-day time frame, then.

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The uh the city council would have the authorization to implement the program.

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And I think that ends the the slide portion and I'd be happy to.

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Answer any questions or discuss any items. Thank you. Henry um we're going to have time.

A

For everybody to speak to for or against or just ask questions we can break now for questions or.

A

We can continue to share the survey data. We did us citywide survey mailed to every house.

A

And we can share those results, but we'll pause. If anybody has questions on henry's material.

A

Okay, I actually have a question so uh right now I get my power from a third-party supplier is.

B

There a procedure in place, or will there be by the time this rolls out for me to be able to.

B

um Opt-In, there will be, uh and what you would want to do is.

C

um Understand if there is a penalty or an exit fee with that service provider, that you're with.

C

Right now and then, whether there was or not, you could terminate that contract pay. The fee.

C

Or maybe there is no fee and then you could go to the portsmouth community power enrollment website.

C

This is part of what the coalition sets up for all the members and just type in your utility.

C

Account number and click opt-in, and then you would be enrolled into the program. Okay, great, thank you.

A

And henry I've had a question from a resident who didn't get the postcard.

A

For the survey and said, how am I going to be sure that I get notice of the changeover.

A

My answer was: I believe that if you're a utility customer that your address will be mailed.

A

Would that be the best answer? That's correct! So that's part of the utility partnerships, the.

C

Utilities under the rules and the law uh share lists of all customer accounts. Mailing addresses.

C

With authorized programs and then those programs issue, mailed notification to all.

C

The electric customers in the community and the first ones of those are likely.

C

Going to be going out within a month or so for those first aid communities.

A

So I suppose that that's an advantage of being a fast follower, so we could see that everybody in.

A

The in the first towns gets their notification and, if not, what the fixes for that will be.

A

Any other questions brandon peter um yes, so I'm I'm net metering right now, which means that the.

E

Excess energy that I generate that I don't use, is sold back to eversource and on their bill. They.

E

Give me credit for that. I assume that's that's also going to happen in the community power model.

C

Yes- and this is addressed in the plan in general terms- and as these programs are new and going live.

C

For the first time in the state, the law does require certain data sharing between utilities.

C

And community power programs- um let's let's just say there- are there- are uh we're working through.

C

With the utilities, the appropriate data sharing to ensure net metering customers do get appropriate.

C

Service in the event that some of the outstanding issues with data sharing with utilities, with.

C

Regard to net metering customers are not resolved prior to the launch of these first programs. Those.

C

Net metering customers would not be automatically enrolled until such time as we had sorted out. The.

C

Data sharing for net metering customers with utilities, if that makes sense. So if there's any.

C

If there is any uh possibility of enrolling that metering customers in an unfavorable.

C

Manner to those customers because of some of the back end details, then it would not occur.

A

Okay um and uh now we'll go to the survey data and allison tyler tanner of our committee is going to.

A

Present the results of this, um we did the survey because we wanted to know what you as residents.

A

Would like to see in a community power program and what your priorities were, so that we could build.

A

Those into the energy aggregation plan um allison yeah, so this is just going to be a brief overview.

B

Of what we've found out so far, we've still got some of the surveys coming in next slide.

B

So we have so far actually 389 respondents, but we've we've taken into account here, 373, which.

B

Is a pretty good number and the far majority of people are portsmouth homeowners. However, we.

B

Have some that are tenants, some landlords, some businesses and then we have other and the other.

B

Category is just people that have more than one they're a landlord, as well as being a a homeowner.

B

In the city of portsmouth slide, oh allison, can you just because the the black is not so.

E

Easily readable back here, can you just say it each time as you go down so people know where you are.

B

Okay, you mean just read down the list: well, yeah yeah, as you're going down you. Can you.

E

Mean read the percentages. Is that what you want? Well, mainly the the the the the black.

E

Headings there, oh okay above the graphs, okay, sure um so the top one. Okay, that's.

B

All right we'll go to the next one, so the next one is who is your energy supplier and.

B

um Almost 80 percent of the people that responded uh had eversource as their energy supplier.

B

uh However, there was 20 percent that had third-party suppliers, which I I thought.

B

Was pretty high? I was surprised by that and then there were two people that didn't know: foreign.

B

That we asked was, if your answer to question one was eversource. Why did you make that choice.

B

So uh it was sort of evenly split, but between the uh the first reason and um no actually the.

B

First reason was was the highest and that was I didn't know. I had an option and there were 151.

B

Or or 40 percent that said that others said they had no reason to look for a different supplier.

B

uh Some said I tried to switch but could not find a supplier with better rates. There were some.

B

People that just checked other and um some of the things that fell under that category were laziness.

B

Lack of trust third party rates were higher at the time or they didn't know how to change.

B

And then not applicable is the group again that did not choose eversource as their supplier.

B

So when we asked which option would be most important to you in the portsmouth community.

B

Power program: this is where the there were two that were fairly evenly split and that's the.

B

Third and the fourth bar I mean the first and the fourth bar, so lower lowest cost energy option was.

B

About 33 percent and the same or lower cost with more renewable energy content than I have today,.

B

Was 36 percent uh the others were 50 renewable energy and then 100 renewable energy. That may.

B

Or may not cost more and surprisingly, that was almost 20 percent of the people pulled.

B

um And then other in that category, I think the thing that really stuck.

B

Out was reliability that people felt that reliability was really important.

B

And then another part of the survey we asked ranking from zero to ten. What was the highest.

B

Priority for you with each of these questions, and so this is uh just done in bar charts and what we.

B

Did was we, we took the the amount of votes sort of in each of those bars and came up with averages.

B

And so the ability to increase energy efficiency and reduced costs came in with an average of about.

B

8.7, so that was you know, 10 is the highest priority. So that's that's up there [applause].

B

And the next one, which was again.

B

Right up, there was control of energy costs, so that was 8.6 as a priority.

B

And also everyone was interested in increasing renewable energy sources.

B

And including locally generated, so that was at 7.4, which was a respectable amount. I believe.

B

So you know we did this survey to try to find out what people really wanted from community power and.

B

um That's why we're having these hearings too, to hear from you what your concerns are, what.

B

Your desires are so your input is really valued. Thank you. Thank you, allison. I would just call.

A

Out that, um if it's possible that we can get more green energy at the same eversource default price.

A

The total of who would want that in the survey is 62 percent. If we can achieve that through.

A

Community power, I think that would be something that the majority of our citizens would like.

A

She wanted to comment um two things one you you mentioned, 20 percent were.

D

On competitive supply, allison- and I was just looking at our data for the city and.

D

It's like 16, so the the survey is pretty close to to the actuals in the town. Yeah.

D

um And and having a return of 400 or so we will get to 400. because it is a pretty- uh is a pretty.

D

Good sample size for the city- and I think you know useful for all of us in terms of what it's.

D

Telling us, and also I want to thank allison. She has taken the lead on this survey and has driven.

D

That with us, uh you know over the past few months and I think it's been, it's been very helpful.

D

So, with stephanie's help as well, absolutely stephanie's involved with everything. Yes yeah.

A

Any other questions for allison or comments on the survey.

A

All right, let's uh now hear from residents anyone who would like to speak to for or against.

A

Community power and the energy aggregation plan just state your name and your address and.

A

It's your turn.

E

So full speed ahead to get you on the record, we need you to come up to the microphone. Your.

A

Name and address yesterday 248 spindey road portsmouth yeah great. Thank you. Thank you.

E

You know we should. We should add that we're not just looking for criticism, though,.

E

We're here for that too, but if someone has an idea of something we haven't thought of or like to see.

E

Included uh this isn't a vehicle to increase and improve the plan. We have so don't feel if you.

E

Don't have something you want to criticize. You can't provide some constructive input.

A

A

No hands on zoom, okay,.

A

Sure [laughter].

B

We know who you are, but you should probably still rebecca o'brien.

F

O'brien uh 396 miller, ave, portsmouth, new hampshire, full transparency used to be on this committee and.

F

Had to step off, but I just wanted to commend the committee's work on this progress and full steam.

F

Ahead I say, and I wanted to thank henry too- you answered a lot of the questions that I had.

F

um About what happens if you do have a third party supplier, and how does that work? Can you.

F

Continue to can you opt into the program, so that was really helpful. I was very curious.

F

To hear about what what can maybe happen with new hampshire saves as well. So thank you for.

F

Speaking to that and I'm excited about this reserve fund portion or addition- I don't know.

F

If it's an addition, but as part of the electric aggregation plan, I think that's really exciting.

F

To have that possibility of potentially maybe in the future sourcing local energy.

F

So yes, full steam ahead and just wanted to offer my absolute 100 support for this program. So thank.

A

You becca and thank you for all the work that you've given us. Others who'd like to speak.

A

Going once yeah sorry, I just want to I just to comment because I know we have a lot of.

E

Questions on that survey to say you know, would you be willing to have renewable energy even if.

E

It costs more than um the other options. um The there there's actually a very encouraging trend.

E

That, if you look at the puc's website a couple days ago and you wanted 100 green energy, it's.

E

Already three cents cheaper than the default rate is so it's like uh it's not it's not a brainer.

E

Anymore, to say: okay, I want renewable energy, but I want it at a lower cost. You can already get.

E

It at a lower cost than third-party suppliers, and, interestingly enough, that was a trend. I think that.

E

Started maybe five six years ago, where a renewable energy was maybe two cents more expensive than.

E

Default and it became one cent and then with one cent under and now uh recently. I think.

E

Three months ago it was five cents difference lower, and now you had to commit yourself to.

E

Two years, but there was no cancellation fee, so that's an encouraging sign that the renewable.

E

Energy sources are now very competitive and are willing to underbid default service.

A

Cheapest electrons win.

A

Other before or against.

B

Henry, when you were talking about new technologies coming online in battery storage and things, um you.

B

Know I've heard a lot lately about bi-directional charging, so is that something that you know is is.

B

You know you're looking at is maybe something to bring forward. One of those technologies.

C

It it could be um really any anything that can allow customers to intelligently shift their.

C

Energy usage so they're not drawing power from the grid at high cost times or as you're, describing.

C

uh If they are putting power onto the grid at high cost times those matter, those are those.

C

Are values that can be achieved? I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of the technology of.

C

um Bi-Directional charging like an electric vehicle that I could actually feed power into.

C

The grid, I think there might be legislation in the new hampshire state house this year. There.

C

Might be a bill that addresses this, um but it's a good example of the kinds of things where, if.

C

We had more intelligent electric vehicle charging rates for distributed batteries.

C

All of these things can help to to lower the overall portfolio cost. Thank you, counselor. Just.

D

um And henry you may have mentioned it, but I think one of the advantages of the coalition.

D

Among many is the kind of the aggregate voice of all the communities with the puc and in the state.

D

Legislature, to kind of speak with a unified voice around trying to influence smart and progressive.

D

Energy policy within the state to the point allison you were just making and I think it gives.

D

You know community, like portsmouth a much bigger hammer, if you will being part of the coalition to.

D

um To influence so I think, that's uh you know, that's a that's a real benefit as well. Yep agreed.

A

And henry: if a community used some of its reserves or structures, it's reserved.

A

In a way that it would long-term fund solar, arrays or hydropower, or anything like that,.

A

Would the coalition buy that power and then sell it back to that community's customers.

A

Is that how that would work? Essentially, yes and I'll, just clarify a little bit so.

C

The the structure of the coalition in this statewide collaboration- it is about.

C

Long-Term benefits and is really balancing short-term and long-term benefits, so there is.

C

A period of time where the reserves must accrue to a certain threshold to really.

C

Just maintain stability beyond that point in time, the reserves could be used for projects.

C

um And- and this is a little bit nuanced, but rather than taking the reserve fund and spending.

C

That cash on a solar array, for example, what's more likely is that reserve fund would be held.

C

By the communities through the coalition- and it would, it would be the collateral or really.

C

A credit or enhancement a financing mechanism so that a developer and a financier they would spend.

C

Their capital build the project and then sign a 10-year contract or a long-term contract with.

C

Portsmouth, let's say to buy that power for 10 years, so this is a little roundabout answer.

C

But yes, you could have somebody build a local project and then portsmouth could contract with.

C

That developer and then source their power from that project. The reserve wouldn't necessarily be.

C

The cash that pays for the project, but it enables those projects to occur and.

A

Would that then enable the city to go to the bond market and get revenue, anticipation, notes.

A

To fund the project yeah, this is a really key point. So a number of the communities.

C

Are very excited about the ability to revenue, bond and self-finance projects in in this way.

C

And this is uh possible under the law and regulation for these programs. Thank you.

A

Other questions can I just offer a little perspective for the future. Perhaps I mean going by going forward now.

E

uh Just because henry you just mentioned energy usage, um it's worth reminding us that the only 30.

E

Percent of energy use is electricity right now. The the other 70 is transportation and heating.

E

And those could be areas that the coalition could look into once we're up and running how.

E

Can we also be an aggregator for those kind of things? I'm thinking, for example, of the fact that.

E

There there are all kinds of new technologies around hydrogen and ammonia storage, as instead.

E

Of electric batteries for transportation, for example, also, uh since I'm on the officer win.

E

Commission, uh five to six years from now, we'll have offshore wind off the coast of maine, and I.

E

Would assume the coalition would have the ability to sign a procurement agreement with that wind.

E

Supplier that we could get from them yeah, so I think, there's a there's a lot in that uh question.

C

And yes, you know, energy is a really broad topic and there are a lot of different aspects to this.

C

um There are a number of exciting things that can be brought to light through these.

C

Programs over time- I I don't want to sort of over promise or over speculate on any.

C

One individual technology, I'm not an expert in hydrogen technologies or things like that.

C

um There I I will say that folks, who are in the wind industry and looking at the development of.

C

Offshore wind in the state have contacted folks at the coalition to understand what it is that.

C

Is being created here and if the coalition could potentially be a counterparty party or a buyer.

C

For the electricity that could be generated from that type of a project, my understanding of those.

C

Projects are quite some time off in development, but you do now have a a buyer in the coalition.

C

At scale that could potentially be a counterparty to large large generators such as offshore wind.

D

Keeping it simple in the near term, I look at it. This is it's almost.

D

There's there's very little risk in this direction. It gives all of our residents.

D

Another option they can stay with eversource, they can go with a competitive supplier or.

D

They're going to have a choice of the community power coalition of new hampshire that'll have.

D

A default rate that beats the utility and, if they're, interested in green they're, going to.

D

Have some additional choices? So that's like right now, that's happening. You know at the beginning of.

D

2023 and and all of that goodness is you can't argue with and then all the other things we're.

D

Talking about in terms of new technologies is also wonderful, but down downstream.

A

And henry: if, if somebody wants to go to a third party supplier right now,.

A

They often have to buy a year or even multi-year contracts. If somebody.

A

Goes onto the default as cpcnh and portsmouth community power.

A

Talk a little bit about the flexibility that they have if they want to change.

C

It is full flexibility, they can change any month, no fee, they can go and shop for a competitive.

C

Supplier or choose to buy power from eversource, so fully competitive, fully flexible and they.

C

Have the options that those other menu items that portsmouth community power would provide.

A

I think that was one of our considerations. When we looked at should we do portsmouth.

A

Community power through a broker, but customers wouldn't have the flexibility they have with cpca.

A

Totally open flexibility and just to build on that a little bit so part of the benefit of.

C

This coalition model is essentially, this is its own competitive energy supplier that is owned and.

C

Controlled by the communities and um what that means is rather than having to lock into like.

C

A 24-month contract the coalition can adjust rates over time and can manage this portfolio.

C

It's got different, it's got different contracts of different terms with different generators.

C

And because of that, it can adjust rates over time. This is important because you know you could lock.

C

In a 24-month rate that looks really good today and then in six months, the market could fall. The.

C

Utilities could go back in and come and come in with a rate that's actually lower than whatever.

C

You locked into and that's a risk and we've seen that in some of the other markets that.

C

Are just doing one 24 month or 36 month, contract through a broker, um you know it it's, it can be.

C

Beneficial and there are instances where it can be, be a risk and the utilities could could come.

C

In with lower rates, the coalition is a model that really protects against that with its flexibility.

A

Right, especially with the reserves, for you know, keeping prices stable too.

A

In addition to smart buying and portfolio management, buffering any shocks with the reserve.

A

Questions comments.

A

She ate the people who've come out tonight, david ellie, becca, lisa nice to see you all.

B

I might say I'm 95 and I'm hoping to see something happen, while I'm still around.

A

We're on it david yep, we should get busy then right now.

F

We've got about 10 years, probably from the lexavu at least.

A

um Do we have any other business for the committee tonight.

A

If not I'll, entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn a second, though.

A

All in favor and just a reminder, we have a second hearing, uh the 9th of february and currently.

A

That's at 6 30 as it's posted, correct; six, six! Oh, it's been changed to six okay, six pm city hall.

A

Thursday, the 9th and we welcome more comments from the public. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

A