Amendment #25 to H5151

Improving ratepayer access to municipal aggregation

Ms. Ciccolo of Lexington moves to amend the bill by adding the following section:

SECTION X: Said chapter 164, in section 134, is hereby further amended by adding the following subsections: -

c) The department of public utilities shall establish a grant program for municipalities to support their efforts to launch new load aggregation programs or enhance existing programs. Eligible municipalities for this grant program shall include (i) any municipality that includes environmental justice communities as defined in section 62 of chapter 30 of the General Laws; (ii) any municipality consisting of less than 15,000 in population; or (iii) any municipality possessing an equalized property valuation per capita as determined by the department of revenue less than 100 per cent of the statewide average equalized property valuation.

d) The department of energy resources shall produce a report which shall (i) quantify existing savings for commercial and residential ratepayers participating in load aggregation programs (ii) identify barriers to adoption of load aggregation programs among municipalities (iii) identify barriers to participation in load aggregation programs among eligible ratepayers, (iv) identify strategies for how participation rates can be improved at both the municipal and ratepayer level. Said report shall be delivered to the legislature not later than 1 year after the passage of this act and not less frequently than every 5 years thereafter.

e) A municipality or group of municipalities which aggregates its electrical load and operates according to subsection (a) but has a ratepayer participation rate not greater than 70 per cent among eligible ratepayers shall submit a plan, along with its annual report pursuant to department of public utilities 23-67A guidelines, providing steps to improve participation following an affirmative vote and a public meeting.

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #25 to H5151

Improving ratepayer access to municipal aggregation