FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 26, 2022

City of Kingston Launches Community Choice Aggregation Program

KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is pleased to announce the launch of the City of Kingston’s Community Choice Aggregation Program.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) enables municipalities to supply residents and small businesses with accessible and affordable green energy by pooling demand. The City of Kingston’s CCA program, which is called Kingston Community Energy, allows the City to purchase clean energy supply at bulk rates on behalf of all residents and small businesses while still maintaining delivery service from Central Hudson. By also including community solar in the CCA, Kingston Community Energy will ensure that all residents, regardless of income level, will benefit from locally generated clean energy. In addition, the CCA will develop home efficiency loans and other wealth-building programs to ensure equitable distribution of clean energy resources.

As a first step in the process, the City of Kingston enacted Local Law #3 of 2021, which authorized the adoption of a CCA program. Today, the City is announcing the selection of Mid-Hudson Energy Transition, Inc (MHET) as CCA Administrator, pending Public Service Commission approval. MHET is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit located in the Hudson Valley founded to develop advanced CCA to provide support for energy efficiency measures and create programs for city-wide building decarbonization, electrification of transportation, and new opportunities for residents to share in the ownership of distributed energy resources. PowerMarket, a recognized market leader in community energy programs, will serve as MHET’s implementation partner.

“We are excited to move forward with the next step in our Community Choice Aggregation process, which puts control of choosing energy suppliers in our own hands and has the potential to both deliver lower monthly bills and cleaner energy, and create healthier homes for all of our residents,” said Mayor Noble. “The City of Kingston has been researching, evaluating, and strategizing the development of a CCA for years and we are thrilled to partner with Mid-Hudson Energy Transition, who we are confident will lead our community through a meaningful energy transition. Our goal is for our local energy supply to be 100% renewable energy sourced within New York State.”

The CCA will be administered by MHET and PowerMarket in partnership with the Law Offices of Dana Hall, Communities for Local Power, and New Yorkers for Clean Power. Kingston Community Energy will be managed by the City’s Sustainability Coordinator.

“We have been working towards establishing a Kingston CCA program since 2016. We have been waiting for the right time to move forward, and this is the time. Our Climate Action Plan 2030 identified CCA as one of our top energy goals, helping us to divest from fossil fuels, become more energy independent, and engage the community in local solutions,” said Julie Noble, Environmental Education & Sustainability Coordinator.

“We are so thrilled to be working with the City of Kingston, which has a long-standing history as a leader in the response to climate change, including its record as the first city in New York to achieve Silver status in the Climate Smart Communities program,” said Susan H. Gillespie, President of the Board of MHET. “Successful implementation of an advanced CCA model will further elevate Kingston’s status as a sustainability leader regionally and even nationally as other municipalities look to those who have effectively transitioned to clean energy.”

“Last year, PowerMarket served as the community solar partner on the successful Solarize Kingston and Solarize Ulster campaigns where we helped sign up hundreds of community solar subscribers,” said Brad Tito, Director of Community Energy at PowerMarket. “Today, we are thrilled to help implement Kingston Community Energy and bring the benefits of clean energy to all Kingston residents.”

The establishment of Kingston Community Energy will be a yearlong process, beginning with coordination and approvals through the Public Service Commission, extensive community education and public outreach, renewable energy supply contracting, and monitoring and oversight. The City of Kingston will host two public information meetings in December to provide an overview of community choice aggregation and Kingston Community Energy.

Public Information Meeting #1

December 7, 2022

12:00-1:00pm

Virtual-only meeting. Register in advance.

Public Information Meeting #2

December 7, 2022

6:30-7:30pm

Virtual-only meeting. Register in advance.

Live Spanish interpretation will be available

During the CCA adoption and after, Central Hudson will continue to be responsible for delivering power, maintaining lines, and responding to outages.

All residents and small businesses will have the opportunity to opt out of the CCA without penalty. Large businesses can join at their request.

For more information, please visit https://engagekingston.com/community-choice-aggregation.