OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

North Kingstown Ocean State Community Electricity Public Information Session - November 19, 2025

Town Council — Wednesday, November 19, 2025
BodyNorth Kingstown, Rhode Island
SessionTown Council
DateWednesday, November 19, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:13:00

Transcript — Verbatim
0:24

All right.

0:25

Hi everyone.

0:26

Thank you so much for being here tonight.

0:28

My name is Courtney.

0:29

I'm with Good Energy.

0:30

My colleague Rachel will be joining us for the QA later in this session.

0:35

I'm really excited to present to you guys tonight.

0:38

I'm going to, just so you know what to expect, run through what Ocean State Community Electricity is, how the program works, supply options through the program, as well as how participation works for those who want to participate and those who do not.

0:54

I would just ask that you hold all your questions until the end.

0:58

You might find that your questions answered in the presentation, but the bulk of this meeting tonight will be for QA for you to ask your questions.

1:07

So with that, figured we would start with what the program is.

1:12

Ocean State Community Electricity is a municipal aggregation program.

1:17

As mentioned in the introduction, the collective buying power of a town is pooled together and leveraged to select an electricity supplier for the program with more competitive rates as supply options.

1:30

The purpose of this program is to help North Kingstown residents and businesses manage electricity supply costs and provide options for renewable energy use.

1:40

The only thing that changes with this program is who your supplier is and therefore what that supply rate is.

1:50

And truly, truly, when it comes to the purpose of this program, it is just to give you as an electricity consumer more options in terms of what your supply is.

2:00

While we can't guarantee savings in every rate period, our programs, both in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have historically all saved money over the course of the entire contract.

2:11

And this is my colleague Rachel.

2:16

Okay, so we thought we would start with how it works.

2:21

Basically, the program is being offered to the community via the town's selected consultant, Good Energy.

2:27

And this program is a part of a buying group that has been operating for three years and includes seven Rhode Island communities.

2:35

This includes the neighboring South Kingstown and Narragansett.

2:39

So you're joining this buying group that's been going on for a while, very successfully.

2:44

The program offers a residential supply rate or supply rate options as well as different rates for commercial and industrial customers.

2:53

There are three residential supply options in the program, and two of those are cleaner and they also offer lower prices than the utility.

3:04

The letter that you might have received will have prices on them, and we will run through those prices later in the presentation.

3:14

So we thought we would introduce our electricity supplier.

3:17

Next ERA has been chosen as the electricity supplier for the program through that competitive bidding process.

3:23

Next era is one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the New England area as well as nationally.

3:29

And next era supply will start through the program in January 2026.

3:36

And to talk a little bit more about them, there are a lot of electricity suppliers out there.

3:42

And as always, we're just here to give you more options.

3:45

You can continue to shop around, whether in this program or outside.

3:50

Some of these electricity suppliers might have knocked on your door or even called you.

4:00

And that is why we go with Next ERA, who has the scale and experience to run these types of programs.

4:06

They are experienced, competent, tested.

4:09

We've worked with them at least with the last three years in that Rhode Island buying group that you guys are joining, and we have great track records of service in Massachusetts as well.

4:18

They service the entirety of the Cape.

4:21

So we're really thrilled to have them on board.

4:34

There's the delivery side of your electricity bill and the supply side.

4:38

If you participate, the only thing that changes is the supplier and therefore the supply rate in the supply side of your bill.

4:53

A lot of our frequently asked questions are addressed on this slide.

5:05

So in terms of what stays the same, the delivery portion of your Rhode Island Energy bill will remain the same.

5:12

Rhode Island Energy will continue to deliver electricity, maintain poles and wires, and respond to any storm or power outages.

5:20

You will still continue to pay just one bill to Rhode Island Energy.

5:25

Anyone using budget billing or receiving low-income disk rate discounts will continue to receive your current benefits, and the same goes for solar.

5:34

Customers receiving net metering or other solar benefits will continue to receive those current benefits.

5:39

And that includes community solar as well.

5:43

So with that, I'll hand off to Rachel.

5:47

Good evening, everyone.

5:48

So now we're gonna really get into the meat and potatoes of the program.

5:52

So we'll start here with the program options that will be starting in January.

5:57

You can see on the left, we have that standard rate outlined.

6:01

Um, and that's because if you are eligible for automatic enrollment and you received one of those letters, that is the rate you would be enrolled in automatically come January.

6:10

That standard rate does include 5% additional renewable energy on top of what the state requires right now, which brings you to 46% total renewable energy.

6:21

And then we also have the two optional products in the program, the basic and the plus.

6:26

So the basic option doesn't include any additional renewable energy, and that's going to be our lowest price in the program.

6:34

Again, that's going to be 41% total renewable energy.

6:38

And then the plus product, that is our 100% product.

6:41

So that actually does have 100% renewable energy.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Energy Conservation█████████████████████████████████████████████82%
Public Engagement████████15%
Procedural█2%
Pending Litigation█1%
Summary of Proceedings

North Kingstown Ocean State Community Electricity Public Information Session

On November 19, 2025, the Town of North Kingstown held a public information session to present the Ocean State Community Electricity program, a municipal electricity aggregation program. Representatives Courtney and Rachel from the town's consultant Good Energy explained the program's structure, supply options, pricing, and enrollment process. The session included extensive public Q&A covering concerns about automatic enrollment, pricing comparisons, renewable energy sourcing, supplier NextEra Energy Services' reputation, and program oversight.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Sam (solar customer): Asked whether solar net metering credits would change; confirmed that credits remain at the Last Resort rate, only supply charges change if pulling from the grid.
  • Unnamed attendee: Asked how to compare rates after joining; told that Rhode Island Energy's rate will be on the program website with a calculator.
  • Ray McCarthy: Asked about the Plus product (100% renewable), cost of Good Energy consulting, and contract duration. Ralph (town official) responded that Good Energy was selected via RFP, costs the town nothing, and the contract extension will be discussed at the December 15 Town Council meeting.
  • Kate Benoit: Asked about outage response and auto-pay; told outage handling remains with Rhode Island Energy and billing unchanged.
  • Attendee: Questioned why opt-out requires signing a card while opt-in does not; informed that state law requires opt-out programs for aggregation.
  • Attendee: Expressed confusion that renewables cost more; told local renewables create more impact but are premium priced.
  • Attendee: Asked for evidence of savings; shown a graph of historical rates (since May 2023) indicating the default product has been lower and cleaner than Rhode Island Energy's Last Resort Service in every six-month period.
  • Attendee: Noted delivery charges are a larger portion of the bill; agreed that the program only affects supply (5-10% of total bill).
  • Attendee: Asked if North Kingstown is joining an existing buying group or standalone; told it joins seven other communities but has its own contract.
  • Ken Boitzel: Asked about profit threshold and why automatic enrollment defaults to Standard (with 5% extra renewables) instead of cheaper Basic; explained program has dual goals of competitive pricing and increasing renewable energy access.
  • Suzanne Murray: Asked if more participants lower rates; told buying group aggregation increases bargaining power.
  • Chris Heinsman: Asked who pays Good Energy; answered that Good Energy is paid by the supplier (NextEra).
  • Attendee: Expressed concern about automatic enrollment confusion; told state law mandates opt-out.
  • Steve McLaughlin: Asked about rejoining after opting out; told no penalties but supplier may offer market rate for residential customers (though rarely applied).
  • John Piazza: Asked about flexibility to switch plans; told changes can be made monthly on meter read.
  • Kathy: Asked if requests to switch plans can be denied; told denials are rare, usually due to typos or account blocks.
  • Attendee: Asked about renewable sources; shown map of Rhode Island wind and solar projects supplied by Green Energy Consumers Alliance; also includes anaerobic digestion, small hydro; offshore wind may be added later.
  • Attendee: Asked why NextEra was chosen; cited experience, capacity, successful track record with the region.
  • Attendee: Raised negative reviews and lawsuits against NextEra; presenter distinguished wholesale aggregation contracts from retail contracts, noting consumer protections built into the aggregation program.
  • Beth L Ross (Town Council): Asked if program will drive down Rhode Island Energy prices; responded that utility pricing is driven by broader market factors.
  • Attendee: Asked about metrics of success and how costs compare; presenter emphasized the program's goal is to offer more options; town manager clarified the program's purpose is to provide options meeting individual goals.
  • Attendee: Raised concern about automatic renewal terms; told contract changes require public process and letters.
  • Linda Osberg: Asked about town evaluation before contract renewal; town manager confirmed public analysis and Town Council discussion.
  • Attendee: Expressed deep distrust of NextEra and politicians; was encouraged to opt out if uncomfortable.
  • Kevin Flynn: Noted the lawsuit mentioned was dismissed.
  • Betsy Dwyer: Offered a framing that this program provides choice, similar to the breakup of Bell Telephone, and noted that renewables help preserve resources.
  • Attendee (budget billing): Confirmed nothing changes with budget billing; will be automatically enrolled in Standard.
  • Attendee: Asked how 100% renewable customers know they get what they pay for; explained renewable energy certificates (RECs) track and retire renewables on their behalf.

Discussion Items

  • Presenter Courtney introduced the program as a municipal aggregation leveraging collective buying power. The only change is the supply rate; delivery stays with Rhode Island Energy.
  • Presenter Rachel detailed the three supply options starting January 2026: Standard (46% renewable, including 5% extra from RI new sources), Basic (41% renewable, lowest price), and Plus (100% renewable, premium price). Prices are fixed until May 2026, then new prices announced before changes.
  • Voluntary renewables come from RI-based wind, solar, and other local sources sourced by Green Energy Consumers Alliance.
  • Enrollment: customers on Last Resort Service are automatically enrolled in Standard unless they opt out by December 13, 2025. Opt-out/option change can be done via website, phone, or postage-paid card.
  • Customers with third-party suppliers are not automatically enrolled but can voluntarily join after checking for exit fees.
  • The program is part of a buying group operating for three years, including South Kingstown, Narragansett, and five other RI communities.
  • Town Manager Ralph provided details on Good Energy's selection via RFP, no cost to the town, and upcoming Town Council decision on contract extension on December 15.
  • Presenters clarified that the program does not change billing, auto-pay, budget billing, net metering, or low-income discounts.

Key Outcomes

  • No votes were taken. The session was informational only.
  • The next public session is scheduled for December 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM in the Town Council chamber, followed by a December 4, 2025 session at 10:00 AM at Beechwood Center (targeted at seniors).
  • The presentation slides and recording will be made available on the town website.
  • The Town Council will discuss the contract extension (options include fulfilling the remaining two years, adding three years, or piggybacking on a five-year extension) at the December 15, 2025 council meeting.

Meeting Transcript

All right. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for being here tonight. My name is Courtney. I'm with Good Energy. My colleague Rachel will be joining us for the QA later in this session. I'm really excited to present to you guys tonight. I'm going to, just so you know what to expect, run through what Ocean State Community Electricity is, how the program works, supply options through the program, as well as how participation works for those who want to participate and those who do not. I would just ask that you hold all your questions until the end. You might find that your questions answered in the presentation, but the bulk of this meeting tonight will be for QA for you to ask your questions. So with that, figured we would start with what the program is. Ocean State Community Electricity is a municipal aggregation program. As mentioned in the introduction, the collective buying power of a town is pooled together and leveraged to select an electricity supplier for the program with more competitive rates as supply options. The purpose of this program is to help North Kingstown residents and businesses manage electricity supply costs and provide options for renewable energy use. The only thing that changes with this program is who your supplier is and therefore what that supply rate is. And truly, truly, when it comes to the purpose of this program, it is just to give you as an electricity consumer more options in terms of what your supply is. While we can't guarantee savings in every rate period, our programs, both in Massachusetts and Rhode Island have historically all saved money over the course of the entire contract. And this is my colleague Rachel. Okay, so we thought we would start with how it works. Basically, the program is being offered to the community via the town's selected consultant, Good Energy. And this program is a part of a buying group that has been operating for three years and includes seven Rhode Island communities. This includes the neighboring South Kingstown and Narragansett. So you're joining this buying group that's been going on for a while, very successfully. The program offers a residential supply rate or supply rate options as well as different rates for commercial and industrial customers. There are three residential supply options in the program, and two of those are cleaner and they also offer lower prices than the utility. The letter that you might have received will have prices on them, and we will run through those prices later in the presentation. So we thought we would introduce our electricity supplier. Next ERA has been chosen as the electricity supplier for the program through that competitive bidding process. Next era is one of the largest wholesale suppliers in the New England area as well as nationally. And next era supply will start through the program in January 2026. And to talk a little bit more about them, there are a lot of electricity suppliers out there. And as always, we're just here to give you more options. You can continue to shop around, whether in this program or outside. Some of these electricity suppliers might have knocked on your door or even called you. And that is why we go with Next ERA, who has the scale and experience to run these types of programs. They are experienced, competent, tested. We've worked with them at least with the last three years in that Rhode Island buying group that you guys are joining, and we have great track records of service in Massachusetts as well. They service the entirety of the Cape. So we're really thrilled to have them on board. There's the delivery side of your electricity bill and the supply side. If you participate, the only thing that changes is the supplier and therefore the supply rate in the supply side of your bill. A lot of our frequently asked questions are addressed on this slide. So in terms of what stays the same, the delivery portion of your Rhode Island Energy bill will remain the same. Rhode Island Energy will continue to deliver electricity, maintain poles and wires, and respond to any storm or power outages. You will still continue to pay just one bill to Rhode Island Energy. Anyone using budget billing or receiving low-income disk rate discounts will continue to receive your current benefits, and the same goes for solar. Customers receiving net metering or other solar benefits will continue to receive those current benefits. And that includes community solar as well. So with that, I'll hand off to Rachel. Good evening, everyone.

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