Hudson Valley Community Power Launched to Develop Clean, Local Energy for Six Communities in the Hudson Valley

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y., Jan. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, January 16^th, JouleCommunity Power (Joule) and Hudson Valley Energy launched Hudson Valley Community Power, a partnership to deploy a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA or "Community Choice") program in the Hudson Valley. Joint Community Choice education outreach has been ongoing in the region since 2017. The recent signing of Joule as Program Administrator by the City of Poughkeepsie has propelled the project into a development stage.

Glenn Weinberg, Vice President of JouleCommunity Power, stated, "Hudson Valley Community Power reflects the ethics of this program–communities empowered in the long-term to actively lead the clean energy transition. In the near-term, municipal authorities who choose to participate will generate local economic development from clean generation that, in parallel, saves residents money."

To date, six communities—Beacon, Cold Spring, Marbletown, Philipstown, Fishkill, and the City of Poughkeepsie—have implemented local law enabling them to deploy a Community Choice program, and chose Joule and Hudson Valley Energy to Administer the program. The next step is for each community to approve Joule's electricity supply contract, after which Joule will issue a bid offering to energy suppliers, who will compete to win the business. The six communities participating in Hudson Valley Community Power will select an electricity supplier from the competing bidders.

Joule expects to initiate deployment of the region's first-ever Community Choice program in Spring 2019.  Residents of the participating communities, who currently receive their electricity from Central Hudson, will instead purchase it from the chosen suppliers—provided that they don't opt-out of the program. The opt-out preference will be made available upon program deployment.

Hudson Valley Energy's Jeff Domanski said, "Hudson Valley Community Power is truly an historic opportunity—by saying yes to this decision, participating communities are effectively leading a growing movement towards community-led, clean energy programs, empowering other local governments across New York state to take action."

Empowering communities to choose their energy supplier through authority granted by the New York State Public Service Commission, Joule is (1) extending the reach of Community Choice; (2) systematizing long-term, guaranteed energy savings—through greener and locally-sourced energy; and (3) fuelling local economic growth.

New York State's first pilot program across twenty-five municipalities in Westchester County in 2016 has, to date, saved residents more than $15 million on their energy bills.

About JouleCommunity Power
JouleCommunity Power (JouleCommunity) works with municipalities and local partners to reduce or cap residential energy costs while advancing energy reduction, energy management, and clean energy goals amidst an evolving regulatory environment. With no upfront cost to a municipality or its residents, JouleCommunity helps consumers save money and energy by pooling local demand to broker less expensive energy supply contracts for residents and small businesses while creating new revenue opportunities enabled by participation in energy markets. JouleCommunity's distinctive expertise in designing and implementing new consumer-protective energy supply contracts was instrumental in the creation of New York State's first (and to-date only) CCA program. Having created the blueprint to guide communities through a smooth and empowering decision process, JouleCommunity aims to scale its successful CCA model across NY State and beyond.  JouleCommunity Power is a division of Joule Assets. Learn more about JouleCommunity at: www.joulecommunity.com.

SOURCE JouleCommunity Power

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