The Public Aggregator
The illusion of choice, affordability, and green energy
“It’s profitable to buy and sell electricity.” Peter Millman, Vice President, People’s Action for Clean Energy, testifying in support of HB 6928
Every one needs energy to live in a modern world. We are captured buyers, rate payers, whatever the word used to describe us. We are dependent on the energy that illuminates, warms, and cools us. Climate change is the jingo on the street with a green rush to net zero and decarbonization. There’s billions of dollars flying around from investors and venture capitalists with their new shinny green energy pet projects. What a convenience it is for them to have a captured audience, the rate payer. No one choses to be a rate payer, but if you want to live in the modern world, this is what you have become to policy makers.
It’s a bitter cold February day, a small space heater is clunking away in the backroom of my old New England farmhouse with it’s creaky floors and blown glass windows. My windows definitely would not pass today’s muster as “energy efficient”. What does energy efficient really mean? I may live in an old home, but I am not the only one on the block that shutters every time the Eversource bill arrives. New homes on my street with all the bells and whistles struggle with large bills too. It’s dawned on me recently that this is all just marketing, energy efficient, clean energy, green energy, wind energy, solar, ahhh the golden sun. So much better than those nasty fossil fuels and that dirty coal. Coal is actually carbon, and carbon is the element of life. Fossil fuels runs our lives and the green energy initiatives too. Sadly it is an energy war, a war for who can pretend to have the cleanest energy and how much money they can make on kilowatts. Energy generates billions in profit, green energy generates TRILLIONS! Green energy makes just as much if not more toxic waste in landfills than traditional energy sources.
Government love’s the energy war, it feeds their quasi government agencies and public, private, partnerships. Politicians get to play good cop. While industry is the bad cop, but the truth is they are bedfellows. They thrive on each other’s ability to create policies that lead to industry cashflows while they try to deceive the public that it’s all in their best interests. Remember when deregulations was sold to us as means to get more consumer choice and lower energy prices? All deregulation has given us is a small board of bureaucrats we can grovel to when the energy giants and their aggregators do not deliver affordable energy prices. There are no real choices. The policies enacted by the government delivers major profits for industry, not efficiency and affordability for citizens. I wonder what our forefathers would’ve thought of our government and it’s close partnership with Eversource and UI? In today’s modern world a sound bite with the right lingo is all that’s needed to deliver a message to the beleaguered citizenry. Our legislative body is a super majority riding high on the “climate change” $cha−ching$ train! We’re talking about a trillion dollar captured market here.
The Chair of the Energy and Technology Committee, Representative Jonathan Steinberg, was blunt when he said, “We’re not going to be lowering rates substantially in the future.” Much of the day’s testimony was for a new version of a failed bill from last session, HB 6928: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC AGGREGATION PROGRAM. This program will create “enabling legislation” to create and allow another market for industry to sell municipalities solar farms, battery storage, and wind farms, to achieve net zero and decarbonization mandates, and yes, maybe it will save some money too. There will be a contract to sign, but no one ever wants to talk about the contracts that trap towns into deals that can last for decades. How is the deregulated electricity worked out so far? Access to energy suppliers has not made anything better. Our energy costs are the highest in the nation. So here’s another law to give us more of the same at the local level. Nonetheless lobbyists and nonprofits lined up to testify how wonderful it will be for “rate payers”. Only a small portion of testimony came form the public. One lady representing a nonprofit testifying in favor of HB 6928 lamented how she loves the “public benefit charges” and looks forward to paying for all the wonderful green energy. The irony is she doesn’t pay public benefits, she gets her energy from one of the 6 municipal utilities in Connecticut, which is apples to oranges compared to HB 6928 and green energy aggregators.
Sure, a community aggregation project sounds nice, people mean well, but all it is is more solar, battery storage centers, and wind farms. Not to mention it runs on data and SMART technology. This technology is expensive and and its longevity is questionable. What about privacy? Never mind the toxic waste from solar, wind and batteries. What about the fire risks with batteries?! How much extra money will have to be spent on fire safety by towns that adopt this? It’s a venture capitalist’s dream and a citizen’s ball and chain. The race to “net zero” is a major shift in vital resources like farmland, wetlands, open spaces, and fresh water to public aggregator’s investment projects.
There were 10 bills to consider on the hearing agenda. This is always what the committees do in Hartford, they cram a bunch of bills into one hearing and have all the “important people” testify first. After hours of the officials’ testimony, the citizens have a right to speak. It’s a long and tiring process which is by design. People do not see the sausage being made in the windowless hearing rooms. The citizen has been reverted into a rate payer, barely a thought in the rush to green energy. While legislators pat each other on the back and make nice with the lobbyists that they know all too well.
We are the net zero and decarbonization they want to create.
Notes, Links, References:
State Opens Docket To Consider Study Of Opt-Out Municipal Aggregation Sought By Clean Energy Group
The Connecticut PURA has assigned 20-05-13 for "PURA Study of Community Choice Aggregation," after a petition from a representative of clean energy groups, for such a study
Peter Millman, identified as with People's Actions for Clean Energy and Eastern CT Green Action, submitted a letter to PURA asking, "I would respectfully request that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority conduct a study to determine the potential opportunities and challenges of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) for the state of Connecticut.”
Millman wrote, "Connecticut is interested in CCA. As of this writing, New Haven, Middletown, Simsbury, Mansfield and Windham have all passed resolutions supporting CCA, asking the legislature to pass enabling legislation. About 15 legislators want to see a CCA bill enacted. In addition, more than 20 CT organizations, including the CT League of Conservation Voters, the Acadia Center, Peoples Actions for Clean Energy, Operation Fuel, and the CT Roundtable for Climate and Jobs support CCA.”
“efficiency funds”
Community Power/Municipal Aggregation
Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) or Municipal Aggregation, is a system
in which municipalities procure the electricity supply for their residents and in some states, can
develop a variety of local energy programs.
Community Power/Municipal Aggregation
“an aggregator is a company who acts as an intermediary between electricity end-users and (distributed energy resources)DER owners and the power system participants who wish to serve these end-users or exploit the services provided by these DERs”.
What is energy aggregation?
The definition of energy aggregation is when a group of local institutions, small businesses or companies partner together in order to purchase energy from one or more developers at smaller volumes while still benefitting from the economic advantages of high volume power purchases. Many small companies sign virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) through electricity aggregators.
In summary, aggregation works by allowing customers to have more buying power as a collective, in which they can secure more competitive energy prices.
Aggregate power also helps customers to gain access to renewable energy sources (such as RECs or even carbon offsets) and options and to be in a better position to receive expert advice on energy purchase decisions. How does energy aggregation work?
Valuation of investments in energy aggregator and storage systems by compound options
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC AGGREGATION