BELCHERTOWN – During the Belchertown Select Board’s Jan. 10 meeting, the board received a presentation from the Energy and Sustainability Committee about its Belchertown Green Grid program.

To start the presentation, committee member Frank Byrne recapped the goals and charges of the committee.

“We were appointed in January of 2021 and were charged by the Select Board with developing and recommending sound energy and sustainability policies for the town. This means the committee will help citizens in the areas of energy conservation, efficiency and alternative or renewable energy resources,” he said.

After his introduction, Byrne explained one of the committee’s largest programs, the Belchertown Green Grid program.

“Our charge here on the Belchertown Green Grid is the subcommittee is looking at options to provide Belchertown residents and businesses with a cleaner sourced electricity supply with the goal to maximize renewable energy content at an affordable rate, providing both environmental and cost benefits,” he said.

Byrne also detailed municipal aggregation, the purpose of the project.

“Municipal aggregation is the process by which a municipality purchases electricity in bulk from a competitive supplier, combining the purchasing power of residents and businesses with the community, switching supply from the basic utility service over to a competitive supply source, typically with a higher, cleaner energy content at a lower kilowatt per hour cost,” he said.

Along with municipal aggregation, Byrne said a step further in the process is green municipal aggregation.

“Green municipal aggregation, which we are very interested in, is an enhancement which allows residents to have the option to opt in to a 100 percent renewable energy content, so this provides the possibility for even more environmental benefit as well as growing the renewable energy market in the Northeast,” he said.

After establishing the committee and receiving approval at the annual Town Meeting in June of 2021, Byrne detailed the committee’s current and next steps.

“Now we are at the stage where we are looking to hire an energy broker with deep experience into municipal aggregation and this would involve no cost to the town. From here once we select a broker, we will create an aggregation plan with public review process built in and there are a number of hurdles to pass over in terms of securing the necessary approvals from DOER (Mass. Dept. of Energy Resources) and the Department of Public Utilities,” he said.
Following the approvals, Byrne said the committee would continue outreach while the project is out to bid.

Committee Chair John Piekara said the Green Grid program would offer price stability over the first couple years of the program.

“The other things these programs offer is long term price stability and consumer protection. A lot of these contracts for these aggregation programs run for two to three years so whatever rate is locked in at the time lasts for two or three years whereas National Grid changes their consumer pricing every six months or so,” he said.

Piekara said residents would see a change for the supply charge on their typical National Grid bill with the Belchertown Green Grid program.

“Nothing is going to change on the page one side of the National Grid bill, National Grid is still going to bill as a customer, they take care of the delivery services and getting the electricity to your house. The supply charge is where if somebody has a third-party supplier, that is where you will see the change,” he said.

In order to move forward, Piekara said the town needs to choose a broker to decide what the town is looking for in a contract and supplier.

“These people work with the towns to get what the town is looking for, for a percent green and the electric bill, and at what rate. They know to go to which supplier that will give them the numbers they are looking for. They are the experts and know how to set the stage to get the pricing and what we want out of the program,” he said.

Piekara explained the committee had already met with several energy brokers in executive session, but could not disclose the names in public. Byrne added that the next step was to choose one of the brokers or meet with them directly.

“We are really at the point now where we simply need to select an energy broker, we would encourage the Select Board to consider bringing both candidates in for you all to ask direct questions as they are truly the experts, but at this point we are in the position to recommend either or so we are hoping the Select Board will consider having them come in a future session,” he said.

The presentation did not require a motion but the Select Board agreed to meet with the brokers in a future executive session.

During the meeting, the board also received a presentation from the School Building Committee about the feasibility study for Jabish Brook Middle School and Cold Spring School, which was presented to the School Committee during its Dec. 14 meeting. Details of the presentation can be found here: https://www.thereminder.com/localnews/belchertown/belchertown-school-committee-receives-presentation/.

The Belchertown Select Board next meets on Jan. 24 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Feb. 3 edition of The Reminder.