Of North Kingstown.

We're just going to give a brief introduction to our consultant Good Energy.

So Ocean State Community Electricity is a program that's endorsed by the town of North Kingstown, and some of the goals of the program are to give energy consumers more options when it comes to their energy supplier.

So right now you could go out as an individual and seek a third party supplier, but it takes a lot of information and knowledge to be able to do that.

So this kind of sets you up a second option without having to do that research on your own.

Another tangible benefit could potentially be savings, which we do hope for.

So today, Good Energy is going to walk you through a brief presentation of how the program works and what you can expect if you decide to stay in or opt out of the program.

They are the experts in this field, and after that, they're going to take any questions that you may have.

I also want to let everyone know I know it's a little bit tight in here.

We have had three prior presentations, so if anyone at any time is uncomfortable or prefers, we do have those previous meetings available online.

And a lot of the questions that are going to be asked will probably be very similar.

So if you do want to watch that, you can see myself or Nicole, and we can send you that link afterwards.

And we'll make sure that link is available on the program website as well.

Hi everyone, my name is Courtney.

I'm here with Good Energy, and I'm with my colleague Rachel today.

We are really excited to present to you today about the Ocean State Community Electricity Program.

Just so you know what this presentation is going to be.

It's going to be about 15 to 20 minutes long, and afterwards, we'll have a QA session where the majority of our time will be spent.

We ask that you keep your questions until that QA session.

That will be the majority of the meeting today.

And we are going to run through in this presentation how the program works, what supply options you have through the program, and how participating or not participating in the program works.

So without further ado, we thought we would start by talking about the purpose of the program.

Ocean State Community Electricity is known as a municipal aggregation program.

The collective buying power of a town is pooled together and leveraged to select an electricity supplier for the program.

The only thing that changes if you participate in this program is who your supplier is and that supply rate on your bill.

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

So, in terms of how it works, as I mentioned before, this is a municipal aggregation program which functions based off of collective buying power.

I want to address how this is an opt-out program because we've received a lot of questions about it over customer support, and there was a lot of conversation about it around our last public meetings.

Once a town authorizes aggregation programs for their community, there is a bid with thoroughly vetted suppliers, and negotiations occur for the best prices and terms with the buying power of the whole town.

This is why the program is designed as an opt-out program.

In our experience running these programs nationally for 15 years, opt-in programs do not achieve meaningful participation.

High participation is necessary to attract suppliers, and without supplier interest, the program does not function.

And so, because of this, opt-in models are considered a non-starter.

And I want to clarify that there was a question two public meetings ago about why the program is opt-out instead of opt-in.

To clarify, this particular program is designed solely as an opt-out program.

It is not structured to operate as an opt-in program because opt-in does not work effectively.

In Rhode Island law, while the statute does allow for opt-in programs and nearly every state allows for opt-in programs, those programs do not reach the critical mass of participation required for suppliers to offer competitive pricing.

So the Rhode Island legislator recognized these barriers and revised the statute for aggregation programs in 2017 to make these opt-out programs available and realistically allow for aggregation in the state of Rhode Island.

So we apologize if there was any miscommunication on any of the previous public meetings, which, as mentioned before, are available online.

What we are able to offer is competitive pricing, electricity supply options, and maintain your right to come and go out of this program at any time.

A great benefit of these aggregation programs are the consumer protections that are built into the contract and town negotiated.

So there's no penalty fees associated with leaving the program, with rejoining the program, or changing what electricity supply option you choose.

So you can maintain that right to come and go at any time.

So this program is joining a group of seven active aggregation programs that are pulled together into what's called a buying group.

And these include the neighboring South Kingstown and Narragansett, who all share good energy as a consultant.

So moving on from how it works, I want to touch on our electricity supplier for the program.

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

One of our next era is one of the largest wholesale suppliers in New England and nationally.

Next era supply will start through the program in January of 2026.

So the program has not started yet.

There are a lot of electricity suppliers out there.

Some may have knocked on your door or called you or left letters in your mailbox.

And there are many offers.

If you have the time and the expertise to shop around, we absolutely encourage you to do so.

But that does take a lot of time and often expertise to know what you're doing.

And these third party suppliers on the retail market can often be too good to be true.

Next ERA has the scale and experience to run these type of programs successfully on the wholesale market, which is where these aggregation programs run.

Next ERA, the supplier is experienced, competent, and tested.

We've worked with them with a over the last three years with that buying group of the seven Rhode Island communities, and it's gone very successfully.

Next ERA services the entirety of the CAPE, and we are really thrilled to have them on board.