CCA was enabled in Rhode Island through the Utility Restructuring Act of 1996.  The Act was amended in 2002 by House Bill 7786 to give municipalities the ability to set up “opt out” programs.  Before 2002, less than 1% of customers had chosen alternative electricity providers.

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The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns administers the RI Energy Aggregation Program (REAP), which has served as the electricity aggregator to many League members for more than twenty years. The program has used the collective purchasing power of Rhode Island cities and towns to negotiate lower electricity rates and provide budget stability. REAP also provides other advisory services, including energy market analysis, green power procurement, energy efficiency options and solar projects.

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The League has a joint REAP service agreement with Constellation New Energy and PowerOptions, a nonprofit consortium that provides energy purchasing, advisory and support services to New England nonprofit and public sector members. 

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CCA in Rhode Island took a major step forward with the passage of Senate bill 877, which passed in special session September 19th, 2017, and House bill 5536 which passed June 1st 2017.

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This legislation was brought by Representative Deborah Ruggiero, and supported by green power advocates People’s Power & Light (a partner group with Mass Energy Consumers Alliance MECA), the Environmental Council of Rhode Island, and the New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC), a clean energy business association. This bill is described as removing procedural hurdles that previously prevented the implementation of aggregation in Rhode Island, and aligning Rhode Island’s aggregation law more closely with the law in neighboring Massachusetts, under which 136 communities now have such programs.

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H 7786 (2002) had previously required that opt-out aggregation would require a vote by the electors of the community (see lines 14-11 through 14-15), not by the governing body of that municipality or township. H 5536 (2017) removes that roadblock to aggregation, eliminating the provision that requires individual customers to opt in to the aggregate purchase. Instead, it creates programs in which all customers in the contract area are included unless they opt out. Opting out, however, must be allowed at least every two years and without penalty.

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