What is Rockland Community Power?
Rockland Community Power is a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program—comprising communities in New York’s Rockland County—that enables participants to pay less for renewable (or “clean”) energy than they’ve historically paid for traditional (or “dirty”) electricity.
The partnering towns and villages have banded together to pool local electricity demand in order to leverage the collective buying power of their residents and small businesses in an effort to secure more favorable energy supply rates, protect consumers, and support the generation of clean energy in NY State .
The participating communities with active electricity supply contracts through the program are the Towns of Clarkstown and Orangetown and the Villages of Grand View-on-Hudson, Haverstraw, Nyack, and Upper Nyack.
The prospective communities with no active electricity supply contracts through the program are the Villages of Piermont, Suffern and West Haverstraw.
This program was formed in partnership with Joule Community Power.
What is Community Power?
Community Power is a concept and “toolbox” that puts energy decision-making authority in the hands of communities rather than the state, transferring power to enable local autonomy. Community Power ensures that even the smallest communities are equipped with the legislative framework and tools to become active leaders in the transition to clean energy. The tools currently offered by Joule are Community Choice and Community Solar programs.
What is Joule Community Power?
Joule Community Power works with municipalities and local partners to empower communities and facilitate their goals of providing residents and businesses with cleaner and cheaper energy. With no upfront cost to a municipality or its residents, Joule’s first-of-kind, integrated Community Power program helps municipalities and consumers (1) save money by gaining leverage to procure less expensive electricity for residents and businesses, (2) make money by creating new revenue opportunities through participation in energy markets, and (3) go green by gaining local control to opt for clean and renewable generation sources. Joule's distinctive expertise in designing and implementing new consumer-protective energy supply contracts was instrumental in the creation of New York State’s first CCA energy program. Joule is the only company in NY State offering CCA administrative services with a Public Service Commission-approved implementation plan that integrates community solar projects; and only Joule has the expertise, relationships, and experience to effectively design, implement, and manage such a program. Joule’s innovative renewable energy strategy is driving new regulation and encouraging the NY State Public Service Commission to rapidly advance innovative solutions. Having created the blueprint to guide communities through a smooth and empowering decision process, Joule aims to scale its Community Power model across NY State and beyond. Joule also offers capacity tag management services to businesses wishing to reduce their electricity costs by strategically managing their energy consumption.
Joule Community Power is a division of Joule Assets.
Learn More about Community Choice Aggregation in NY
The Public Service Commission (PSC) authorized CCA April 21, 2016. The PSC continues to regulate CCA with the support of the Department of Public Service (DPS). Information including CCA program rules can be found here on the DPS website.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) created a toolkit to support the development of CCA. The toolkit can be found here on NYSERDA’s website.