New York

New York has one of the most ambitious renewable energy visions of any state. Several years after the establishment of New York’s first CCA, Westchester Power, CCA is doing well and continuing to grow. As of January, 2023, hundreds municipalities have launched or are pursuing CCAs to achieve local energy goals.

Since its launch in May, 2016, Westchester Power has grown to 29 communities accounting for 145,000 Westchester electric customers, representing 40% of the county residents.

Joule Community Power's first program launched in 2019 and now serves 56 communities/800,000 customers with $18 million in electricity cost savings in 2022. New initiatives include an Energy Storage for Social Equity project in Rochester and a Community Solar project in Southampton.

Municipal Electric & Gas Alliance (MEGA) presently serves more than 30 county governments and more than 250 municipalities, including many school districts.

HISTORY

In 2014 New York State began a series of reforms that are referred to as Reforming the Energy Vision (REV). These programs are designed to benefit both the environment and the state’s economy by creating many small, local, clean power plants throughout New York and increasing the benefits of retail price competition for residential and business customers. The Order Instituting Proceeding and Soliciting Comments about CCAs was issued on December 15, 2014.

In February, 2015 the New York Public Service Commission approved the plans for creating the state’s first CCA, Westchester Power, to serve communities in Westchester County, a well-to-do region north of New York City. Westchester Power provides electricity to residents of participating communities at a price that is slightly below the prices offered by ConEd (the IOU for the southern part of the county) and NYSEG (the IOU for the northern part). Westchester Power offers its customers a choice of “basic supply” electricity or electricity that has been made 100% renewable through the purchase of Green-e certified RECs at a slightly higher price.

One unique feature of the New York electricity market is that IOUs are not allowed to offer stable electricity prices. Generation charges fluctuate monthly, and can range from as low as 3 cents/kWh to 15 cents/kWh. CCAs, on the other hand, can offer stable prices and can guarantee those rates for one or more years, depending on the duration of the supply contract they enter into.

Westchester Power serves twenty-one participating municipalities (see map). The 100,000 customer accounts in those communities represent 40% of the county’s population. The creation of Westchester Power was the culmination of years of work by the non-profit community group Sustainable Westchester, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit whose members are 41 of the 44 municipalities in the county. Westchester Power is structured as a program of Sustainable Westchester, and is regulated by the New York PSC.

CURRENT AND EMERGING ISSUES

In July, 2022, Hudson Valley Community Power customers were returned to Central Hudson electricity service due to a default by the program’s energy supplier Columbia Utilities Power, LLC. The move followed Columbia Utilities being declared in default one week earlier when the company failed to comply with the requirements of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), which is responsible for operating the state’s bulk electricity grid. A report released in March 2023 announced the program is anticipated to re-launch in June 2023.

The Public Service Commission laid down the ground rules for all future CCAs in New York on April 21, 2016 when it issued an “Order Authorizing Framework for Community Choice Aggregation Opt-Out Program.” The order encourages formation of CCAs by individual cities, towns and villages or by groups of those municipalities. However, it forbids Counties from forming CCAs. In New York, a concept called “home rule” gives cities, towns and villages a kind of sovereignty that does not allow counties to make decisions that bind municipalities.

New York’s regulations make CCAs “opt out” for residences and small businesses, but “opt in” for large businesses and industrial accounts. They emphasize local renewables and distributed energy resources (DER), which are cornerstones of the Renewable Energy Vision.

On Aug. 1, 2016 Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the ambitious New York Clean Energy Standard (CES), a mandate to generate enough renewable power to meet half of the state’s power needs by the year 2030.

On Oct. 13, 2016 the PSC took steps to make it easier for communities to form CCAs by modifying its April 21, 2016 decision in Case 14-M-0224. This press release provides details, but in a nutshell the order requires greater sharing of customer information between incumbent utilities and CCAs and allows gradual roll-out of CCAs in large cities, such as New York, rather than requiring all residents and small businesses to be enrolled at the same time.

The provision for gradual roll-out in New York City was a huge win for CCAs in the state. Several NYC Community Boards, which are advisory groups but which have real power on local issues, are currently investigating forming community-scale CCAs within New York City.

FAST FACTS

The Public Service Commission laid down the ground rules for future CCAs in New York on April 21, 2016 when it issued an “Order Authorizing Framework for Community Choice Aggregation Opt-Out Program.” The order encourages formation of CCAs by individual cities, towns and villages or by groups of those municipalities. However, it forbids Counties from forming CCAs. In New York, a concept called “home rule” gives cities, towns and villages a kind of sovereignty that does not allow counties to make decisions that bind municipalities.
New York’s regulations make CCAs “opt out” for residences and small businesses, but “opt in” for large businesses and industrial accounts. They emphasize local renewables and distributed energy resources (DER), which are cornerstones of the Renewable Energy Vision.
On Oct. 13, 2016 the PSC took steps to make it easier for communities to form CCAs by modifying its April 21, 2016 decision in Case 14-M-0224. The order requires greater sharing of customer information between incumbent utilities and CCAs and allows gradual roll-out of CCAs in large cities rather than requiring all residents and small businesses to be enrolled at the same time.
The provision for gradual roll-out in New York was a huge win for CCAs in the state. Several New York City Community Boards, which are advisory groups but which have real power on local issues, are currently investigating forming community-scale CCAs within New York City.

LEGISLATION (PARTIAL LIST)

PSC Case 14-M-0101 (2014) Reforming the Energy Vision (REV)
NY State Energy Plan (2015) Calls for 50% renewable energy by 2030
PSC Case 15-E-0302 (2015) The Clean Energy Standard (CES) is intended to provide an implementation roadmap for the 2015 State Energy Plan
PSC Case 14-M-0224 (April 21, 2016) The “Order Authorizing Framework for Community Choice Aggregation Opt-Out Program” set the ground rules for all future CCAs in New York and is considered “the CCA Bible” for the state. (Follow this link to the DPS document index, search for Case Number 14-M-0224 and scroll down to 4/21/2016 to find the link to the actual order.)