Melrose Community Power (MCP) program, offered by the City of Melrose, will continue for another three years with new rates and cleaner electricity
Melrose, MA – The city of Melrose announces that it will continue its electricity aggregation program, called Melrose Community Power or MCP for short, for another three years, between November 2021 and November 2024. Those who already participate in the program – and that’s most of Melrose residents and small businesses – don’t need to do anything to continue their participation. Those who have not been part of MCP can read more about the program on the program website mcp.cityofmelrose.org.
“We’re very excited that the program has been able to secure pricing for another three years and doubled the amount of additional renewable electricity from 5% to 10%,” said Mayor Paul Brodeur. “We are looking forward to the program continuing to provide benefits to our community for years to come.”*
Melrose was one of the first to use its electricity program and the power of thousands of participants to increase the demand for more renewable energy, sourced entirely from New England. Annually, the program now purchases 3,600 MWh more renewable energy (in MA Class I Renewable Energy Certificates, which are a measure of renewable energy), than what is required by MA law.
From the start in 2019, the program added 5% renewable electricity to its standard product, Melrose Local Green, and that number will increase to 10% starting in November. MCP offers three electricity choices with different amounts of renewable energy. Most participants are enrolled in Melrose Local Green, but participants can change products at any time without penalty or fee.
*Disclaimer: Savings cannot be guaranteed as compared to National Grid Basic Service rates which change every six months for residential and commercial accounts and every three months for industrial accounts.
The rate for the default product, Melrose Local Green, will increase from $0.10521/kWh to $0.11537/kWh, reflecting the increase in renewable electricity content and current electricity market conditions. The new rate is still much lower than the National Grid rate for Basic Service Residential customers of $0.14821/kWh for the period between November 2021 and April 2022. While future savings cannot be guaranteed because future National Grid Basic Service rates beyond April 2022 are unknown, the City of Melrose is committed to working towards affordable and stable electricity rates through the MCP program.
In April of this year, the Mayor set a goal of getting 100 Melrosians to sign up for the program’s 100% renewable electricity option. The goal was met and exceeded, and through the efforts of Sustainability Manager, Martha Grover, and the Melrose Energy Commission, there are now more than 200 residents in Melrose receiving 100% renewable electricity sourced from New England.
For MCP program participants, the new electricity rates automatically take effect as of the November 2021 meter read date. Participants will see the new rate for their current MCP product reflected in the Supply portion of the bills received after November.
The Supplier field of the electricity bill for MCP participants reads NEXTERA ENERGY SRVCS MA-MELROSE AGG. NextEra Energy Services is the current supplier for the program and will continue to support Melrose through the next three years. National Grid, the electric utility in Melrose, continues to deliver electricity and send the bill to program participants.
The MCP program is part of a larger movement in Massachusetts to provide more local control and electricity choices to residents and small businesses: over 160 Massachusetts cities and towns have an electricity aggregation program.
For more information about the program, visit mcp.cityofmelrose.org.
Contact: Martha Grover
781-979-4195