Energy Aggregation Marches Forward In Essex County

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The “energy aggregation” movement continues to march forward in Essex County.

In recent years, seven towns in North Jersey – Glen Ridge, Glen Rock, Livingston, Maplewood, Montclair, South Orange and Verona – have been changing the way they buy electricity via energy aggregation, which allows residents to join a single buying pool and leverage their purchasing power.

Residents who don’t want to participate are able to opt out of the program.

There are two main advantages for those who choose to remain, supporters of the Sustainable Essex Alliance (SEA) say: saving money and increasing access to “clean, renewable energy.”

In recent weeks, towns participating in the SEA have begun reaching out to residents about the upcoming shift, including Glen Rock, Livingston, Maplewood and Montclair.

On Thursday, Montclair town officials gave an update on the SEA electricity aggregation program, offering some background information about the effort – and what it might mean for residents’ utility bills.

Read the full message here.

“As many will recall, two years ago, the Township of Montclair joined with neighboring Essex County towns of Glen Ridge, Verona, Maplewood and South Orange to form the Sustainable Essex Alliance,” officials explained.

“That award-winning program was a success, bringing us cleaner energy while cumulatively saving our community over $850,000,” officials added.

Montclair officials continued:

“The contract with Direct Energy began in July 2019 with a 17-month term that ran through December 2020. In September 2020, with the end of the initial SEA electric supply contract approaching, the Sustainable Essex Alliance again went out to bid out for a new energy supplier. However, pricing on those returned bids was not favorable and the Sustainable Essex Alliance rejected them. Subsequently, our contract with Direct Energy ended in December 2020, and letters were sent out by PSE&G in December explaining that PSE&G would again serve as the default energy supplier.”

Meanwhile, in an effort to increase its bulk purchasing power, the alliance reached out to other municipalities in the area, eventually adding the Township of Livingston and the Borough of Glen Rock to its roster.

“The expectation was that by including a larger group of households, there would be a better result in bid pricing,” officials said.

In November 2020, the SEA accepted new bids for Round 2 of the program, finding much more favorable results, officials stated.

“We are pleased to announce that we have negotiated a [17-month] contract to the low bidder, Energy Harbor, which will begin in April 2021,” Montclair officials reported Thursday.

Energy Harbor, a retail electric power supplier licensed by the NJ Board of Public Utilities, currently serves about 700,000 residential customers nationwide. Comparatively, PSE&G serves an estimated 2.3 million electric customers.

What does the new contact mean for residents who choose to take part in the program? According to Montclair officials:

“Under the new contract with Energy Harbor, the baseline product will again provide participating residents with power supply that has nearly double the renewable energy content required of PSE&G, at a price of $0.12696/kWh, which is below the current average basic generation service tariff price of PSE&G. Therefore, residents can expect to receive power supply under Round 2 of the SEA program that is greener than utility-provided power supply, and at a cost that is expected to be lower than the cost of utility-provided power supply over the contract term.”

The new contract will also give people a chance to “opt-up” if they want to pay a little bit more for a “100 percent renewable energy product,” Montclair officials said.

“While modestly higher than the PSE&G tariff price, this voluntary, 100 percent renewable energy supply product is priced favorably against similar options currently available on the marketplace,” officials stated, adding that the cost to the average Montclair household would come to about $5 extra per month.

All eligible residents in the area will be getting outreach from the alliance about the details of the new contract, officials said. Meanwhile, residents may also get solicitation phone calls and letters from third party suppliers.

“Be aware that these solicitations are not associated with the Sustainable Essex Alliance, are not leveraging the purchasing power of your municipality and may not include high quality renewable energy sources,” Montclair officials said.

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