Community Power Update

Many of you may be wondering why you have not received a letter from Bristol Community Power explaining the program options, electricity costs and other details. A key requirement for launching the Community Power Program was to ensure the cost of electricity delivered by Bristol Community Power would be lower than the default Eversource power generation rate. However, recent changes in the Eversource default generation rate to 8.9 cents per KWH effective February 1, 2025 places risk on achieving this requirement. The lowest Community Power generation cost of its “Granite Basic Rate” is also 8.9 cents per KWH. As a result, Bristol Community Power will not launch in March as planned.

The good news about this situation is Community Power of NH has driven down the cost of electricity for all 190,000 customers across the 4 0 towns it serves and thereby driven down the overall cost of electricity for all NH residents regardless of their power supplier. However, the recent Eversource generation rate reduction will delay the Bristol entry to the program.

There is pending legislation in the NH House of Representatives to address this issue, and it is not clear at this point what the outcome will be. Eversource has recently requested a 47% increase in Transmission and Distribution charges at the PUC and is accused of shifting costs from generation to transmission and distribution costs. It will take some time to work this matter out in the NH Legislature and PUC. We will keep you informed of these changes as they occur.