“The town is considering joining a community choice aggregation program to source a new, possibly renewable, energy supply that could stabilize or reduce costs for residents.
The project would be managed by Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance (MEGA), a local development corporation that serves local governments by purchasing energy, but community choice aggregation (CCA) is a state initiative.
“The state did an analysis and said residents aren’t saving enough money, they’re not carefully reading contracts, there are a lot of predatory practices, how can we address all of that? The way we can address all of that is (to) pull them together to increase buying power and hire someone else to do the contract negotiation,” said Louise Gava, CCA project lead for MEGA, who presented the idea to the Niskayuna Town Board Tuesday.
“CCA starts a community conversation about our energy choices and empowers and informs our consumers,” Gava said.
National Grid would still be responsible for delivering energy supply to the town’s residents, but MEGA would be responsible for sourcing energy — which could be renewable, clean energy, or locally sourced. Residents could keep National Grid or another third party supplier, but only if they opt-out of the CCA.”
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Moench, Mallory. Times Union 24 July 2019.