Community Electricity Aggregation | Rhode Island

Community Electricity Aggregation (CEA) empowers cities and towns to provide their residents and businesses with highly competitive electricity rates while expanding access to local renewable electricity.

Buying Group to Launch First CEA Programs in RI

A group of seven leading Rhode Island municipalities, including Barrington, Central Falls, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, South Kingstown, are set to launch their state’s first CEA programs starting in May 2023. Read Press Release here.

Working Together

Good Energy’s approach to building a buying group combines the best of collective action and independent decision making. Good Energy coordinated these six municipalities to combine their buying power to procure a common electricity supplier – with no intergovernmental agreements needed. Importantly, each city and town retains its own distinct program and branding and makes its own decisions about the types of electricity options their CEA offers.

Diverse Electricity Options

The six communities have each chosen to offer a similar array of electricity product options, as shown below. The options provide something for everyone – from lowest cost to maximum renewable energy.

All CEA programs have a standard product, which is the product into which eligible customers are automatically enrolled, unless they choose to opt-out. Each of the seven communities has chosen a green standard product, which is meant to be a win-win both economically and environmentally. The green standard product will include voluntary renewable energy while still aiming to provide cost savings.

Rhode Island has an ambitious goal to become 100% renewable by 2033. These seven communities will make a significant impact in accelerating the state’s progress toward that goal!

Supporting New Renewable Energy

The six communities have chosen to support renewable energy sources only within New England (designated as RI New), with as much as possible from Rhode Island. Some of the Rhode Island-based projects which the programs will support include solar built on brownfields in North Providence and Johnston and wind located in Providence, Coventry and Narragansett. The Rhode Island-based renewable energy will be sourced through the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to expanding renewable energy in our region.

Driving the State Forward

Over the past four years, Good Energy and the cities and towns in the buying group have worked to blaze a trail for other Rhode Island communities to follow. Working together we have led or helped create many of the building blocks critical for these programs.

What is CEA and How Do I Learn More?

Is CEA right for my community? To learn more about CEA, check out our CEA Primer here and you can watch a short video created for Providence.

Better Prices

Provide electricity supply at competitive rates that are less volatile and can provide savings compared to RI Energy’s default supply.¹

Cleaner Energy

Provide your community with affordable access to cleaner energy. You’ll combat climate change and support the growth of new renewable energy in Rhode Island.

Good Energy is the nation’s leading energy consultant. We have submitted and received approval for aggregation plans for Providence, Central Falls, South Kingstown, Newport, Portsmouth, Narragansett and Barrington, plus we operate 44 Community Electricity Aggregation programs in Massachusetts, including the second largest buying group of its kind in the nation: a group of 25 cities and towns anchored around the south coast of Massachusetts.

Good Energy is ready to meet with you and your elected officials to help explore how aggregation can work for your municipality.

Two Steps to Start Your CEA program

Authorize Aggregation by City or Town Council vote

Select Good Energy as Energy Consultant

Once selected, Good Energy manages all aspects of CEA implementation, guided by your municipal decisions:

Create an Aggregation Plan with Public Review Process
Secure State regulatory approval for the Aggregation Plan
Procure Electricity and Renewable Energy
Launch public outreach and education campaign
Enroll, Support Participants, Monitor the program

There is no cost to your municipal budget. The cost for Good Energy’s services are recovered in the electricity supply rate chosen by the CEA program.

The City of Providence’s RFP results and contract with Good Energy are available for other Rhode Island communities to use.

Get started today!

Please contact Jamie Rhodes using the form below. We will get in touch with you promptly.

¹Disclaimer: A goal of the CEA program is to produce savings for customers, but savings cannot be guaranteed compared to the utility’s standard offer service rate which changes every three months for industrial customers and every six months for residential and small commercial customers. The Aggregation program seeks to provide price stability and average savings over the full term of the program, but because future standard offer service rates are not known, there is no guarantee of savings.