New Community Power rate change effective March 3, 2025

posted on 2/4/2025; updated 2/5/2025

The Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire’s Board of Directors voted to increase its default “Granite Basic” electricity supply rate for residential and small commercial customers by 0.8 cents to 9.7 cents per kilowatt-hour effective March 3, 2025 through July 31, 2025.

The 9.7 cents per kWh rate replaces the previously announced rate of 8.9 cents per kWh starting on March 3, 2025. The 8.9-cent rate remains in effect from Feb. 1, 2025 to March 2, 2025.

A failed agreement with an in-state power generator led to the increase. This required the CPCNH to purchase replacement power during a period of increased prices driven by the recent cold temperatures and high demand. In announcing the revised rates, CPCNH said its goal is to provide the lowest possible rates while covering costs and maintaining financial stability.

CPCNH’s updated rate is slightly higher than Eversource’s 8.929-cent kWh default rate. The Dover Energy Commission notes this will be the first time Community Power’s Granit Basic rate will exceed Eversource’s rate, set at 8.929 per kWh. Based on a typical monthly usage of 650 kWh, a Dover Community Power customer would see a $5 increase monthly increase compared to the Eversource default rate through July 31, 2025. Since it began, Dover Community Power has saved the average residential customer about $110 compared to the Eversource rate, said William Baber, chair of the Dover Energy Commission and Dover’s CPCNH member representative.

The Dover City Council launched the Dover Community Power program with the assistance of the Dover Energy Commission in the fall of 2023, as part of its commitment to making Dover a more resilient city. Dover Community Power allows customers to choose up to 100% renewable energy options.

Baber notes recent New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission rulings provide utilities a perceived advantage over Community Power programs and other competitive suppliers. The ruling encourages utilities to purchase a significant percentage of their power in the spot market. This appears to be leading to optimistic default utility rates and a price fluctuation shift of risk onto customers. If a utility sets prices lower than its costs, it can recover the loss from its customers in subsequent rate increases. Further, the PUC has indicated that these loss recoveries might be spread across all customers, including third-party suppliers like CPCNH, not just the utility’s customers, Baber said.

In a recent news release, New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis expressed concerns about electricity utilities “reliance on purchases of wholesale power from the ever-fluctuating real-time wholesale market, rather than via long-term” and “forcing all customers – including those relying on community power aggregation – to make up any shortfalls” if the default rate through July 31 does not cover the utilities’ wholesale costs, which Kreis noted is “entirely possible.”

Changing energy suppliers

Dover electricity customers may choose between default service, Dover Community Power, and other third-party, when available, for power supply. The New Hampshire Department of Energy created a website to help customers shop for competitive energy power suppliers.

Switching between the default energy supplier and Dover Community Power, or switching between Community Power’s renewable energy options takes only a couple of minutes online, and can be done anytime. Please note that it may take one to two billing cycles to reflect the change. To begin, visit https://www.communitypowernh.gov/granite-basic. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the heading, “To get started:” Select Eversource as the utility, and follow the instructions.  To complete the change, customers will need their Eversource account number. Customers may also change energy options by calling Community Power customer service at 1-866-603-7697.

About Community Power

The Community Power program is authorized under state law RSA 53:E. It allows municipalities and counties to aggregate retail electric customers to “access to competitive markets for supplies of electricity and related energy services” on a voluntary basis. The program is self-funded through revenues generated by participating customers and does not use taxpayer funds to cover program expenses.

Since launching in early 2023, Community Power has introduced more competition and product options to an increasing number of electric customers in New Hampshire. Customers can easily choose from options including 33%, 50%, or 100% renewable energy on a month-to-month basis and can move between Community Power, utility supply options, and third-party providers.