Newport, Portsmouth community electricity users to see lower bills this summer. Here's why

Residents in Newport and Portsmouth participating in the community electricity aggregation program should expect to see much lower electricity bills this summer, even compared to most Rhode Island residents, through their community electricity aggregation programs.

Electricity rates in Rhode Island, and elsewhere in New England, more than doubled from September to October 2022 due to a variety of market and geopolitical factors and that higher than usual price tag carried over to this current six-month cycle. From October 2023 to March 2024, Rhode Island Energy customers paid a rate of 17.741 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Newport and Portsmouth residents, however, experienced slightly lower rates as a result of their community electricity aggregation programs. The two Aquidneck Island communities are among the seven municipalities to adopt this kind of electricity supply program in Rhode Island, all of which launched their programs around May 2023.

The program allows the municipalities to purchase energy from a commercial electricity supplier other than Rhode Island Energy. The logic behind the program is that, by purchasing the energy on behalf of a large, consolidated group of customers, the municipality’s buying power is increased and able to access potentially lower prices for cleaner supply, according to the state’s Office of Energy Resources. The energy supplier for all seven municipalities is NextEra Energy Services, which services several community aggregation programs in Massachusetts, Ohio and Illinois.

That means, from November 2023 to May 2024, those who did not opt out of the community aggregation program paid 0.10 cents less per kilowatt-hour in Newport and Portsmouth than they would have in other communities. This summer, those rates are expected to drop by an additional 7.35 cents per kilowatt-hour. This new rate, 10.291 cents/kWh, is lower than the winter rates RI Energy customers experienced from October 2018 through September 2024, as well as the summer rate for 2023, 10.34 cents/kWh, and the rate for the current summer period, 10.377 cents/kWh. These rates are still much higher than they were prior to September 2022, however.

These new lower rates for the Newport Standard and Portsmouth Standard services, which residents are automatically enrolled in unless they have their own non-utility electricity supplier. These services also use 5% more renewable energy than RI Energy. Both communities, however, offer three alternative tiers. The Basic tier, which does not have that 5% increase in renewable energy, is the cheapest option at 10.48 cents/kWh. The 50 tier offers a supply with 50% renewable energy for 11.116 cents/kWh and the 100 tier is 100% renewable energy at 13.545 cents/kWh. Residents can switch programs or opt-out entirely through the Newport or Portsmouth community energy programs’ pages.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Community electricity users in Newport, Portsmouth to see lower bills