New Information on the Acton Power Choice Program
Acton Power Choice significantly increases renewable energy content as new program prices go into effect in September

The Acton Power Choice program will increase the amount of voluntary renewable energy that is automatically provided to most program participants — from 10% to 40% — beginning in September. This change is part of the town’s strategy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions associated with Acton’s energy use and to provide residents and businesses with a Town-administered program that reduces volatility in energy prices, offers protection in the marketplace, and keeps energy dollars in our region. This increase in renewable content not only brings Acton Power Choice (APC) in line with some of the most ambitious “green” electricity aggregation programs in the state, but also, advances progress on the goal set out in the Climate Emergency Declaration passed at Town Meeting in September 2020: bringing “net Town-wide carbon emissions to zero as quickly as possible, with a target date of 2030.”

This change will come as Acton’s contract with its current electricity supplier, Constellation NewEnergy, comes to an end, and a contract with a new electricity supplier, NextEra Energy Services, begins. As the new contract goes into effect, all Acton Power Choice prices will change.

Acton Power Choice participants have together saved more than $3.9 million since the program launched in 2017. As part of that the current long-term (three-year) electricity supply contract that the Town signed with Constellation in 2019 has kept program prices low in spite of the recent and rapid rise of electricity prices in the marketplace. With the new electricity supply contract, program prices will move to market levels, which means Acton Power Choice prices will rise. However, the new prices will be fixed for 15 months. If electricity supply prices continue to rise during that time, Acton Power Choice prices will not. In fact, the rationale for a 15-month contract (rather than a longer one) is to ensure that the program is not locked into these prices in the event that energy prices stabilize at lower rates and this erratic pricing period ends.

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