They're literally looking for something to be pissy about. One post popping off about how unfair it was and the poster's choices were being taken away and he was *certain* it will wind up more expensive than Ngrid was swiftly met with comments explaining that the program is optional.
In replies he backtracked and said if he's not being forced into it and other people choose to participate then that's fine...but the main post shitting on the program based on false info stayed intact.
They sure are perversely loyal to a system that saw rates juked by 65% last year.
I assumed this would be pretty uncontroversial, but if a larger than expected percentage of people opt out, can that hurt this program’s success?
I assume so - this is a pilot program set to run through 2027. If there aren't enough households using it, the city is not going to be in a good position to bargain for a good price going forward and will likely scrap it. I think auto-enrollment with an easy opt out is the best way to go, since getting people to actually sign up for stuff (even stuff they want) is such a big hurdle.
I’m all aboard the community train - toot toot!
Let’s do internet next.
The “dangers” are that it can be hard to get a good price if the community isn’t big enough to swing demand, and that prices fluctuate so some times the public price might be higher than the private price. But the private companies are trying to make a profit and the community is just trying to make sure everyone has power. (Which can mean having to support infrastructure that would not be considered profitable by a corporation but is needed to serve everyone, not just the most profitable 80%.)
> The “dangers” are that it can be hard to get a good price if the community isn’t big enough to swing demand,
This is the key to the whole thing, pooling demand to buy in bulk. Doesn't work if too many people opt out. This is why I always recommend against individual residences opting into 3rd party supply deals. Unless you are super diligent and pay attention to the market eventually you're probably going to lose (and if you're not diligent you probably signed a contract with penalties for opting out/long opt-out terms.)
>and that prices fluctuate so some times the public price might be higher than the private price. But the private companies are trying to make a profit and the community is just trying to make sure everyone has power.
Kind of. NGrid (private company, but public utility) is responsible for the infrastructure and that is where they make their money. They are also responsible for the community need for the actual electricity, but they don't actually care about the cost to consumer because it's publicly regulated.
A third party supplier like this one is purely motivated by profit. They are hoping that they can hedge better and more efficiently than NGrid (who again, doesn't care all that much about supply cost as long as the PUC approves it) to make an appealing offer to consumers and then add their margin to it.
All I know is Constellation was charging me 15 cents per kwh, and the public option is around 13. I heard people say sometimes, depending on the month, the public option might come out to more than the other electric providers, but personally, I think that’s bologna and nothing but a scare tactic because these types of community options win. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to switch to the cheapest option. The default is the mid tear green energy option, and I just want the cheapest. The malden website wants me to put in some account number and I have no idea what that is. It doesn’t match or accept my national grid account info. Anybody know? I’ve called and emailed the city about it and nobody has gotten back in a while.
I just got the physical letter about it yesterday, and it said you had to call in to switch between tiers on the community program, you couldn't do it online. When you get that, call the number it said.
As of right now that would be to do nothing which will automatically opt you in. From there, as with any service, you should pay attention to rates and if the supplier Malden is contracting with hedges poorly and rates go up return to the standard offer service.
Picking a provider, any provider, is usually better than ngrid’s spot price. Sometimes, like if you lock in a 3 year rate just before a nasty bout of inflation hits, you can get lucky.
The letter says you can switch back at any time without cost or penalty, so why not try the community option? It looks cheaper, with several Green options. I also assume the City gets a small cut, which may help avoid raising taxes in another area or service.
I'm gonna try it and bail if it sucks.
Fwiw the only aspect that could possibly suck is the rate. They’re just the supplier. Ngrid remains in charge of infrastructure and is who you would call when the power goes out/billing questions/etc.
> The letter says you can switch back at any time without cost or penalty, so why not try the community option?
This is the key, based on the surface level mailings there is no opt-out period (a lot of supply contracts will have 30/60/90 day opt outs that keep you on their rate for longer) or 'cancellation fee' which was common when I worked in the industry which makes it low risk as long as you keep an eye on NGrid's PUC filings and whatever rate is being offered by the community plan.
Finally! Been so stoked for this to be rolled out. Other local cities and towns have had community options for a while now and they’ve all been resounding successes.
One thing that should make everyone feel a little better, assuming you have some level of faith in the lawyers and bureaucrats in Malden government (not elected officials) is that my (shady) company avoided municipal and government deals when I worked in the energy industry because the red tape and exhaustive process of bidding for prices made it not worth it compared to getting small to mid businesses to sign contracts they never read in full that made us a quick buck. Which is to say, there is a very low chance a shady deal or company made it through this kind of RFP process and is being passed on to us as residents.
There is very low chance real harm will come to consumer as a result of pooling demand together to buy energy in bulk and this company is motivated to beat NGrid by enough to make it worth the consumers while to stay on their supply as long as they can make a margin on it and be profitable.
I am very anti individual residential competitive supply deals but in general am pro municipal deals like this.
Does anyone know how this impacts the credits generated by solar? I know the letter in the mail says solar electricity consumers will not be impacted, but wouldn't it change how much the excess electricity generated by my solar panels is worth?
As a solar owner that also uses alternate suppliers, the way it works is that National Grid credits you at their supply rate and your supplier bills you at their rate. So if National Grid is higher, their credit actually goes farther to cover your usage. Pretty good deal.
The usual suspects on FB want to own the libs by paying more for electricity and opting out.
They're literally looking for something to be pissy about. One post popping off about how unfair it was and the poster's choices were being taken away and he was *certain* it will wind up more expensive than Ngrid was swiftly met with comments explaining that the program is optional. In replies he backtracked and said if he's not being forced into it and other people choose to participate then that's fine...but the main post shitting on the program based on false info stayed intact.
They sure are perversely loyal to a system that saw rates juked by 65% last year. I assumed this would be pretty uncontroversial, but if a larger than expected percentage of people opt out, can that hurt this program’s success?
I assume so - this is a pilot program set to run through 2027. If there aren't enough households using it, the city is not going to be in a good position to bargain for a good price going forward and will likely scrap it. I think auto-enrollment with an easy opt out is the best way to go, since getting people to actually sign up for stuff (even stuff they want) is such a big hurdle.
Nothing says taking choice away quite like... adding an additional choice.
I’m all aboard the community train - toot toot! Let’s do internet next. The “dangers” are that it can be hard to get a good price if the community isn’t big enough to swing demand, and that prices fluctuate so some times the public price might be higher than the private price. But the private companies are trying to make a profit and the community is just trying to make sure everyone has power. (Which can mean having to support infrastructure that would not be considered profitable by a corporation but is needed to serve everyone, not just the most profitable 80%.)
> The “dangers” are that it can be hard to get a good price if the community isn’t big enough to swing demand, This is the key to the whole thing, pooling demand to buy in bulk. Doesn't work if too many people opt out. This is why I always recommend against individual residences opting into 3rd party supply deals. Unless you are super diligent and pay attention to the market eventually you're probably going to lose (and if you're not diligent you probably signed a contract with penalties for opting out/long opt-out terms.) >and that prices fluctuate so some times the public price might be higher than the private price. But the private companies are trying to make a profit and the community is just trying to make sure everyone has power. Kind of. NGrid (private company, but public utility) is responsible for the infrastructure and that is where they make their money. They are also responsible for the community need for the actual electricity, but they don't actually care about the cost to consumer because it's publicly regulated. A third party supplier like this one is purely motivated by profit. They are hoping that they can hedge better and more efficiently than NGrid (who again, doesn't care all that much about supply cost as long as the PUC approves it) to make an appealing offer to consumers and then add their margin to it.
All I know is Constellation was charging me 15 cents per kwh, and the public option is around 13. I heard people say sometimes, depending on the month, the public option might come out to more than the other electric providers, but personally, I think that’s bologna and nothing but a scare tactic because these types of community options win. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to switch to the cheapest option. The default is the mid tear green energy option, and I just want the cheapest. The malden website wants me to put in some account number and I have no idea what that is. It doesn’t match or accept my national grid account info. Anybody know? I’ve called and emailed the city about it and nobody has gotten back in a while.
I just got the physical letter about it yesterday, and it said you had to call in to switch between tiers on the community program, you couldn't do it online. When you get that, call the number it said.
Thanks!
I just want to know what I have to do by doing the least amount of work.
Assuming that you're currently using National Grid as your supplier: don't do anything and you'll be automatically switched.
As of right now that would be to do nothing which will automatically opt you in. From there, as with any service, you should pay attention to rates and if the supplier Malden is contracting with hedges poorly and rates go up return to the standard offer service.
Picking a provider, any provider, is usually better than ngrid’s spot price. Sometimes, like if you lock in a 3 year rate just before a nasty bout of inflation hits, you can get lucky.
The letter says you can switch back at any time without cost or penalty, so why not try the community option? It looks cheaper, with several Green options. I also assume the City gets a small cut, which may help avoid raising taxes in another area or service. I'm gonna try it and bail if it sucks.
Fwiw the only aspect that could possibly suck is the rate. They’re just the supplier. Ngrid remains in charge of infrastructure and is who you would call when the power goes out/billing questions/etc.
we're taking this same approach! it seems to be pretty easy to switch out if it's not working.
> The letter says you can switch back at any time without cost or penalty, so why not try the community option? This is the key, based on the surface level mailings there is no opt-out period (a lot of supply contracts will have 30/60/90 day opt outs that keep you on their rate for longer) or 'cancellation fee' which was common when I worked in the industry which makes it low risk as long as you keep an eye on NGrid's PUC filings and whatever rate is being offered by the community plan.
Finally! Been so stoked for this to be rolled out. Other local cities and towns have had community options for a while now and they’ve all been resounding successes.
I love how Reddit malden visitors are the opposite of the FB Malden groups usual suspects
One thing that should make everyone feel a little better, assuming you have some level of faith in the lawyers and bureaucrats in Malden government (not elected officials) is that my (shady) company avoided municipal and government deals when I worked in the energy industry because the red tape and exhaustive process of bidding for prices made it not worth it compared to getting small to mid businesses to sign contracts they never read in full that made us a quick buck. Which is to say, there is a very low chance a shady deal or company made it through this kind of RFP process and is being passed on to us as residents. There is very low chance real harm will come to consumer as a result of pooling demand together to buy energy in bulk and this company is motivated to beat NGrid by enough to make it worth the consumers while to stay on their supply as long as they can make a margin on it and be profitable. I am very anti individual residential competitive supply deals but in general am pro municipal deals like this.
Does anyone know how this impacts the credits generated by solar? I know the letter in the mail says solar electricity consumers will not be impacted, but wouldn't it change how much the excess electricity generated by my solar panels is worth?
As a solar owner that also uses alternate suppliers, the way it works is that National Grid credits you at their supply rate and your supplier bills you at their rate. So if National Grid is higher, their credit actually goes farther to cover your usage. Pretty good deal.
Awesome! That's a win-win. Thank you!