Salem PowerChoice Expanding Renewable Electricity Supply
Salem PowerChoice, the City of Salem’s municipal electricity program, is increasing its commitment to buy renewable electricity from the New England region starting in December as part of the City’s focus on fighting climate change and moving away from fossil fuels. At the same time, Salem PowerChoice will offer new prices that will be lower than National Grid’s winter residential Basic Service price. The changes will go into effect in December as the current electricity supply contract with Dynegy ends and a new three-year contract with Dynegy goes into effect.
Salem has already seen a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because of Salem PowerChoice. The program provides 100% renewable electricity to most program participants. From the program’s 2016 launch through the end of November 2021, participants in Salem PowerChoice will have together purchased more than 575,000 MWh of electricity from renewable sources. This community-wide effort has resulted in more than 350 million pounds of CO2 emissions avoided, which is equal to avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions of passenger cars driving more than 398 million miles.
“As one of the first green municipal aggregations, Salem PowerChoice has led the way in accelerating the move away from fossil fuels by providing access to clean, renewable electricity for all community members,” said Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll. “By increasing our commitment to sourcing local renewable electricity, we are helping to drive the development of even more renewable energy on our local power grid. At the same time, Salem PowerChoice has already saved ratepayers $2.5 million on their utility bills. By locking in prices for another three years, we can continue to protect Salem rate payers from big utility price swings, like this year’s winter price increase from National Grid.”
The increase in local renewable electricity will apply to the PowerChoice Standard offering, which is the default program offering and the one that most participants are enrolled in. PowerChoice Standard provides 100% renewable electricity that is primarily generated outside of New England, with a smaller amount generated within the New England region. Previously, the amount generated within New England included the minimum required to meet state law, plus another 5% added voluntarily by Salem. Beginning in December, that additional voluntary amount will triple from 5% to 15%. Even with this change, the price for Standard Green will rise only a fraction of a cent from 11.104 ¢/kWh to 11.317 ¢/kWh.
Prices for the other two program options, both available by request, will also change:
-PowerChoice Plus provides 100% renewable electricity all from within New England. The price for PowerChoice Plus will increase from 12.508 ¢/kWh to 13.709 ¢/kWh, which largely reflects an increase in the cost of renewable electricity.
-PowerChoice Basic includes only the minimum amount of renewable energy required by state law. The price for Basic will fall from 10.958 ¢/kWh to 10.750 ¢/kWh.
All three program prices are below National Grid’s six-month winter residential Basic Service price of 14.821 cents/kWh, which went into effect on November 1. It should be noted that, during the course of the contract with Dynegy, National Grid’s Basic Service prices may at times be lower than the Salem PowerChoice price. Because future National Grid prices are not known, savings compared with National Grid’s Basic Service prices cannot be guaranteed.
No action is required from current program participants. All active participants in Salem PowerChoice will automatically be enrolled into the new contract with Dynegy and will begin receiving the new prices with their December 2021 meter read. Participants will be enrolled in the same program option they have under the current contract. Participants will first see the new program price on their January 2022 National Grid electricity bills. The new prices will be fixed until December 2024.
More information is available at on the program website at Salem.com/PowerChoice or from customer support at 1-844-483-5004.