John O’Rourke of Good Energy came to the Rochester Senior Center on February 15 to explain a plan that will lower the townspeople’s electricity bills.
His company has helped Rochester and five other towns in the region reach a Community Aggregate Agreement with electricity supplier Direct Energy that will charge residents a lower fixed rate for electrical service. The town’s rate will be 16.31 cents per kilowatt hour, rather than Eversource’s current Basic Service rate for residential customers of 25.649 cents per kWh.
O’Rourke emphasized last Wednesday night that residents now face a deadline to decide on whether to opt out of this new program. Otherwise, residential and business customers in town will be enrolled automatically.
A letter has been sent to all Rochester residential electricity customers that this is the new program’s Launch and Customer Notification period for what is called the Rochester Community Electricity program. Residents had 30 days, until February 20, to notify the company that they wish to not join in.
The opt-out options were: Postmark and mail the card enclosed with the notification letter, call Direct Energy at 866-968-8065 or submit an opt-out form at Electricity.TownOfRochesterMass.com.
The 16.310-cents-per- kWh rate will be for Standard residential service, O’Rourke said. The rate will be 17.850 cents per kWh for Rochester Plus customers who add renewable energy to the supply mix. The electricity generator will remain Eversource.
The new rate will appear on the March meter reading and will be valid until December 2024, said O’Rourke, adding that his company will seek going out to bid for a new supplier contract months earlier, in the summer of 2024.
Direct Energy was chosen under a competitive bid process that involved both town officials and Good Energy personnel in the decision-making, Select Board Chairman Woody Hartley explained.
The other five communities under this agreement are Cohasset, Marshfield, Scituate, Westwood and Uxbridge.
Hartley then elaborated on why such a program was not pursued sooner. He said the Select Board opposed the idea in 2016. He urged reconsidering that opposition when he became a Select Board member, and the proposal passed overwhelmingly at a recent town meeting.
“Massachusetts has the highest tax rate in the nation,” O’Rourke noted. “At a 14-, 16-cent rate, you’re still below average with this program.”
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco