How aggregation works
Municipal electricity aggregation is a form of group electricity purchasing. Electricity aggregation replaces your electricity supplier, and it changes the price that your utility, Eversource or National Grid, uses to calculate the supply services charges on your electricity bill. In addition, aggregation can increase the amount of renewable energy in your electricity supply. But electricity aggregation does not replace your electric utility.
Here’s how it works:
Without Sharon Power Choice
(Unless you already have a contract with an electricity supplier)
Typically, your electric utility provides two services to you as an electricity customer, and your electricity bill includes charges for both of these services:
Electricity delivery |
Your utility’s primary role is as an electricity delivery company. They deliver electricity to you, maintain the poles and wires, and address power outages. They charge you for these services on the delivery part of your electricity bill. |
Electricity supply |
For most people, your utility also provides a second service, which is as an electricity supplier. They purchase electricity on your behalf and charge you on the supply part of your electricity bill for the amount you use. When your utility is your electricity supplier, you have Basic Service. When you first open your electricity account, you are placed on Basic Service. |
Eversource’s and National Grid’s fixed Basic Service prices change seasonally, every 6 months for residential and small business customers and every 3 months for large business customers, and future prices are not known.
With Sharon Power Choice
In an electricity aggregation like Sharon Power Choice, your utility, Eversource or National Grid, continues to deliver your electricity and you continue to call them when the power goes out, but you no longer have Basic Service for the supply portion of your electricity bill. Instead, the Town of Sharon uses the bulk purchasing power of the community to negotiate a contract with an electricity supplier on behalf of residents and businesses and to determine the price of the community’s electricity supply and whether any additional renewable electricity is included. If you participate in Sharon Power Choice, your utility uses the Sharon Power Choice price to calculate the supply portion of your electricity bill instead of their own Basic Service price.