Aug. 21, 2019 | Danielle Eaton
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The town of West Springfield has entered an agreement with an energy company that is designed to help residents save money on their electric bill over the course of three years.
A 39-month agreement between West Springfield and NextEra Energy, was announced in a news release on July 24 by Mayor William Reichelt. The newly created program, West Springfield Community Choice Power Supply, will allow residents and business owners to collectively save more than $1.4 million over the course of the three-year contract.
The program has been years in the works. President of Colonial Power Group, Mark Cappadona, said the West Springfield Town Council initially passed the municipal aggregation program plan about two years ago
“So the Town Council has passed municipal aggregation, the plan, some two years ago,” Cappadona said. “We’ve been waiting for market conditions to be favorable, which they currently are, which you see by the rates. So the town decided to move forward.”
Cappadona and Denise Allard, vice president of operations at Colonial Power Group, led two information sessions regarding the program on Aug. 6. In the Justin Morgan Auditorium at the West Springfield Town Hall they answered questions, concerns, and inquiries residents had regarding the program.
The program is a municipal aggregation program, which allows local governments to combine the purchasing power of its residence and business so it can save on electricity cost. The program does this by creating competition among competitive energy suppliers. However, instead of dealing with the fluctuation of rates among competitive suppliers, residents and business owners in West Springfield will pay one rate for the first few months and then a different, slightly higher rate from January 2020 until the contract ends.
From meter reads beginning in September until November, customers will be charged $0.9663 kilowatts per hour for basic electric service. Beginning with the December meter reads the rate will increase slightly to $0.09672 and will stay at that rate for 36 months.
Residents who are basic-service customers of Eversource received a mailing about the program and will be automatically enrolled in the town-wide program. Cappadona explained this is because they have not chosen a competitive electric supplier.
“Eversource is in favor of these plans, they don’t make any money on the supply,” he said. “The only reason they supply you and I is because if you haven’t made a choice in the marketplace, then by law they have to supply it for us.”
Those who wish to enroll in the program and are currently customers of a third-party electric supplier can do so at no cost to them through the program. However, Cappadona said if you’re switching from a third-party supplier to the program, you should call the 1-800 phone number on your bill to ensure there will be no fees or charges when switching.
Those who will be automatically enrolled, but do not wish to be a part of the program, must opt out by going online to www.colonialpowergroup.com/west-springfield/ or by calling (855) 639-8149. Cappadona said customers are able to opt in and out however often they want during the course of the 36 months of the program, but residents should remember Colonial Power can only opt someone in and out on a new meter read.
While a lot seems to be changing, customers will only be impacted by a slight change to what supplier is named under the “supply services” portion of their bill. Those enrolled in the program will still get one bill from Eversource every month, will still contact Eversource with any issues they may experience, will still be able to use solar panels, and will still get all discounts offered through Eversource that they may currently receive.
However, Cappadona told Reminder Publishing, joining the program is a choice and residents are under no obligation to enroll.
“Make no mistake, it is nothing more than a choice. You decide if you want to participate or if you don’t want to participate, how long you want to participate for, or not,” he said. “We are not going to make the choice, all we’re doing is bringing you another supplier option.”