Community Electricity Comes To Waltham

Waltham residents were surprised last week to receive a mailing from the City of Waltham announcing a new Community Electricity Program. While most residents had no advance notice of the program, residents who follow City Council proceedings had been expecting this since 2019.

The program is based on the principle of combining together in order to have more buying power and negotiate a better deal. An individual household has no bargaining power whatsoever with Eversource. But Waltham, like many Massachusetts communities before it, was able to combine the purchasing power of Waltham households to get great offers through a competitive bidding process. Waltham was able to receive excellent prices solely because it was using an opt-out design; an opt-in design would not have represented enough volume to enable the lower bids. With this greater volume, we get wholesale prices, rather than retail.

The new pricing applies only to the Supply portion of the electric bill. Your current Eversource utility bill already has separate charges for Supply and for Delivery. Eversource remains your utility for Delivery. Your bills will continue to come from Eversource. If you need a repair, Eversource will continue to send a crew to fix the problem.

What’s new is that instead of having your Supply price fluctuate every six months as volatile energy prices move up and down, your price will remain steady until December 31, 2023.

Waltham’s Community Electricity offers four different options. The standard option is called Waltham 10. It had a lower price per kilowatt hour than the current Eversource price and also increases the percentage of renewables by 10% over current levels. Consumers also have the option of Waltham Basic which lowers the Supply price even more, but doesn’t increase renewables; Waltham 50 which raises the price, but increases renewables by 50%; and Waltham 100 which costs the most and moves you to 100% renewables.

Personally, I am willing to pay more by selecting Waltham 100 because it’s important to clean up the electric grid by moving away from fossil fuels that pollute the air and cause health problems in addition to causing climate change.

Most Waltham residents will choose to save money by going with the standard Waltham 10, the default option which has a better price than the current Eversource price, and still increases renewables by 10%.

If you don’t like any of the four options in Waltham’s Community Electricity Program, then opt out of the program by returning the opt-out card provided in the mailer, submitting the op-out form at Waltham-cea.com or calling 866-968-8065. This will keep the Eversource price for Supply and so your price will bounce around every six months depending on the market.

If you like Waltham 10, do nothing at all. You will receive it automatically.

If you like the City’s program, but want a different option than Waltham 10, then go to Waltham-cea.com and select the “enroll or change” option at the top or call 866-968-8065.

I applaud Mayor Jeanette A. McCarthy and the Waltham City Council for aggregating Waltham’s buying power to improve the deal Waltham’s residents get on their electricity. This approach has been tested by many other Massachusetts communities before us and they are pleased with the results. Now it’s our turn to get wholesale prices rather than retail, while also having the option to choose clean energy.

Michael Cavallo teaches Data Analytics and Leadership at Northeastern University and Chairs WECAN, Waltham for Energy and Climate Action Now.