Finance Committee - 05/05/2021 Page 14
But we will be able to act as an organization to advocate for ourselves in PUC rulemaking as well as start
talking to vendors about power supply and figuring out what the price for energy is really going to be which is
something we can’t do right now on our own.
What is a Joint Power Agency or where are they? They are everywhere. These are some places that have
Joint Power Agencies in the United States. This will be the first one in New Hampshire, which is kind of a big
deal for Nashua to be a part of that. So what about in the community power industry? There are only a few
Community Power JPAs, again, Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire will be the first one in New
Hampshire but there are some in Massachusetts, California, just very few. So there’s not a lot to go off of and
that’s what | had for today just to go over this.
Here are some of our founding members, I’m up there, that’s me along with Clifton Below from the City of
Lebanon; Julia Griffin from the Town of Hanover; April Sakas from the town of Hanover; and Rod Bouchard
from Cheshire County. We are the founding members of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire. |
am just going to skip past this. And | wanted to get to this part of the presentation because | don’t want to hold
you guys up all day. These are the steps to starting a Community Power Aggregation for our community. And
| Know we are kind of mixed up in the steps here because we had to start up the organization in order for us to
get to these other steps. We have done some already; we have started an Aggregation Committee but we
haven’t met yet and that’s because we don’t have anything to do with Aggregation Committee. But adopting
the JPA will give us access to be able to create an aggregation plan and that’s where this group will be very
vital to us. They will be able to provide us with templates and help us hone that template with Nashua’s goals
to adopt an aggregation plan and start going out for bid for power with the other communities.
So right now we need to adopt the JPA, then write the aggregation plan with our Aggregation Committee,
hopefully having our first meeting. And then that aggregation plan will go to our Board of Aldermen where
there should be a public hearing or a public session for people to speak on it. And then hopefully with a few
edits, probably the JPA will be approved and then we can officially start going out for power supply as long as
the rulemaking is done with the PUC. So there’s still a couple steps but we are finally to that point where it is
time to start meeting as an Aggregation Committee once the JPA is passed. So that’s my spiel for today. Do |
have any questions?
Mayor Donchess
So let me just clarify a couple things that you went over. For Nashua to embark on Community Power, under
State Law we would need to adopt an aggregation plan, correct?
Ms. Brown
100% correct.
Mayor Donchess
That would be first formulated by our own Nashua Aggregation Committee with the assistance of this
Community Power Coalition.
Ms. Brown
Yes.
Mayor Donchess
And that would then come to the Board of Aldermen to be voted on.
