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Community Power Coalition updates: leadership search, rate tracking and interconnection progress
Summary
Local members reported the coalition will upgrade public benefit tracking, prioritize hiring a power-resources director, accelerate an Aspire solicitation to capture federal tax credits, and noted Eversource rate and meter-fee increases that affect local savings.
Representatives discussing the Community Power Coalition reported several operational updates that could affect towns including Barrington: the coalition will add month-on-month tracking to a public "community benefits" page, the board prioritized hiring a power-resources director to support rate-setting and technical analysis, and it plans to accelerate an "Aspire" solicitation to take advantage of federal tax credits.
Members said attrition has remained low (about 1.2 percent), and that Barrington's opt-ins and opt-outs were nearly balanced as of July 1. The group clarified that new customers are not automatically enrolled with the coalition; customers are moved only after a refresh letter is sent, and the coalition has put refreshes on hold while its rates are higher than Eversource's.
The board's leadership search includes multiple positions (CEO, power-resources director, and a chief financial officer equivalent); the commission reported the decision to continue searching for all roles while prioritizing the technical, rate-focused power-resources position.
The coalition is also moving to accelerate renewable solicitations (the Aspire program) to capture available federal tax credits, and members noted that Eversource's interconnection queue processing has sped up, which may help meet eligibility thresholds that require projects to "start" construction by the end of the year. Members described the near-term model as facilitation or power-purchase agreements rather than coalition ownership of generation.
Locally, the commission reported the town's solar arrays produced more generation than the town used for the first time in a recent billing period, producing a net credit on the municipal bill. Commissioners discussed how rising Eversource meter fees and rate changes will affect the net savings and asked staff to track monthly savings for public reporting.
No formal decisions or votes on policy were taken; the discussion focused on information-sharing and next steps for staff and commission outreach.
