At their Tuesday, July 11th meeting, the Lima Village Board adopted a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Local Law. Passage of this law will provide the Village of Lima the legal authority to enter into a CCA electricity buying group. A CCA buying group aggregates the electrical demand from a large number of customers to create the buying power to obtain lower electrical rates.
Lima Mayor Carl Luft also signed an Energy Service Contract with Joule Assets and Rochester Peoples’ Climate Coalition (RPCC) at the meeting. The purpose of the agreement is to demonstrate Lima’s interest in joining the CCA they are forming with municipalities in and around Monroe County. Signing this contract simply gives the Village of Lima the option to join the CCA in the future, but does not obligate the Village of Lima to join.
The Village of Lima will now wait for other municipalities to pass local laws and sign the Energy Services Contracts with Joule Assets and RPCC. Once enough municipalities complete these actions, Joule Assets and RPCC will begin the process of soliciting bids from energy suppliers. Once bids are received, each municipality will then have the option to join, or not join, the CCA.
If the bids prove to save residents money, and increase the supply of renewable energy, the Lima Village Board will likely progress to the public information phase as outlined by the New York State Public Service Commission. During this process, all Village of Lima electrical customers will receive information on the choices they have for purchasing electrical energy. If an electrical customer does not wish to participate in the CCA, they may opt out of the CCA prior to its inception, or at any time thereafter without penalty.
Westchester County was the first group to form a CCA in New York State. Data from the first 14 months of operation has shown that their electrical customers are paying lower rates for 100% renewable power than the standard residential rates from their default utility. The CCA forming in and around Monroe County will likely be the second in New York. The Monroe County CCA will need to aggregate approximately 20,000 customers to possess the market power to obtain advantageous bids. People interested in joining a CCA should contact their mayor or town supervisor.
