Portsmouth Community Electricity announces electricity prices for Winter 2023-2024 

The Portsmouth Community Electricity program is announcing new winter electricity supply prices to go into effect beginning with the November meter read. The new prices are fixed for six months and will be adjusted to summer rates in May 2024. Current participants do not need to take any action to remain in the program and receive the new pricing for the product in which they are currently enrolled.  

Most participants in Portsmouth’s program use “Portsmouth Standard” which provides more renewable energy than RI Energy’s Last Resort Service, and will still provide cost savings this winter. The additional renewable energy is sourced entirely from local Rhode Island projects, including the Narragansett Bay Commission wind turbines at Fields Point in Providence, solar in West Greenwich and additional wind turbines in Coventry. 

Richard Rainer, Portsmouth Town Administrator, expressed, “We are pleased with the positive results from the first cycle of our Community Electricity program, thanks to our consultant, GoodEnergy. The program has generated significant cost savings for our subscribers. Given the fluctuating nature of energy supply costs, particularly in natural gas, we are satisfied to have secured favorable electricity rates for the next phase of our program. These rates will continue to offer reduced costs for the Standard Product while allowing us to maintain our increased focus on renewable energy sources.” 

For the public to learn more about Winter program pricing, the Town consultant, GoodEnergy,  is holding two information sessions. To Join, attendees can use the following links: October 4, 7:00 PM: https://bit.ly/WinterRateSession1 , October 16, 5:30 PM: https://bit.ly/WinterRateSession2. 

GoodEnergy will also provide a special briefing to the Portsmouth Town Council at their October 10^th Meeting. 

The table below shows the prices for Residential customers compared to RI Energy. Prices for Commercial and Industrial customers can be found on the Program website: 

Portsmouth is part of a group of seven municipalities who shared in launching the first municipal aggregation programs in Rhode Island. Barrington, Central Falls, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and South Kingstown are all working with Good Energy as their consultant and share a common electricity supplier and pricing. 

This May 2023, the Town launched its electricity supply program, Portsmouth Community Electricity, offering residents and businesses cleaner electricity at a lower cost than the utility.  

The voluntary renewable energy content in the Program’s standard and optional products comes from projects that qualify as RI New and makes a sizable impact on the Town’s carbon footprint. In the first three months of the program, participants purchased more than 700 megawatt-hours of voluntary renewable energy, equivalent to displacing nearly 540,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. This equates to taking 215 gasoline-powered vehicles off the road since the program launched three months ago. 

The vast majority of the Town’s residential and commercial electricity users enrolled in the program, and collectively participants saved more than $125,000 from May through July, while supporting new, renewable energy facilities here in Rhode Island. Savings upwards of $600,000 are expected by the end of the first six month pricing term.  

This is a Town-operated program open to all Portsmouth residents and businesses. To join, complete the enrollment form on the program website: Electricity.PortsmouthRI.com or call the program’s supplier, NextEra Energy Services Rhode Island, at (888) 387-1084. Participants may leave the program at any time without fees or penalties. Visit the program website to review all program options available and to submit any questions via the program contact form: Electricity.PortsmouthRI.com