Skyrocketing energy prices are much more than an additional line item on a utility bill. For families, it makes it harder to manage budgets. For the elderly, it makes it harder to live on a fixed income. And for communities and small businesses across Rhode Island, it makes it harder to comfortably plan for the future.

It’s difficult to predict the cost of electricity from one season to the next. The cost of electricity in Rhode Island is currently some of the highest in the region. To make matters worse, utility supply rates change twice a year, which forces residents to deal with uncertainty that can disrupt all aspects of life. Fortunately for Rhode Islanders, community choice aggregation offers another way to address this challenge.

At the core of CCA is the idea of collective purchasing, meaning that rather than thousands of households and businesses negotiating electricity prices on their own, a municipality instead pools those accounts in one large purchasing group. This allows municipalities to have stronger buying power, in turn giving communities greater leverage when looking to negotiate electricity supply contracts and potentially secure more-affordable and predictable rates.

While this may come as a surprise to some, it should be noted that large institutions such as hospitals, universities and major businesses have been taking advantage of these programs for many years. There’s no reason why municipalities shouldn’t have the option to do the same.

The goal here isn’t to guarantee that electricity prices will always be lower, as energy markets are subject to variability and can constantly fluctuate. However, it does provide communities the opportunity to seek competitive rates through their collective purchasing power via CCA programs. In turn, this can heavily reduce exposure to shorter-term market swings while providing much greater budget certainty over the long run.

According to a 2023 University of Massachusetts study, approximately 80% of programs have delivered savings compared with their local utility’s standard supply offering since they began operating, while approximately 60% have also incorporated voluntary renewable energy levels above state requirements.

Recently, there has been some debate in Rhode Island regarding the fact that eligible customers may be automatically enrolled unless they choose to leave. This concern deserves clear communication, but it is important that this discussion doesn’t overshadow the larger question: Can communities use their collective purchasing power to help make electricity more affordable?

Rhode Island already has a default electricity provider, and those who actively choose not to engage with a competitive supplier are automatically enrolled in Rhode Island Energy’s Last Resort Service. By enrolling in a CCA program, residents do not give up their ability to choose their electrical supplier. It’s actually the opposite. Anyone can leave at any time, without any worry of facing early termination fees or hold-over rates.

The real question is this: Why shouldn’t communities and residents have more control and more purchasing power over one of the most essential household expenses? CCA programs should be evaluated based on the results they yield, including how well it reduces local electricity rates, whether it makes electricity rates more predictable, and whether it gives residents and small businesses an additional tool to deal with rising energy prices.

With the cost of electricity presenting a major economic hurdle to so many Rhode Islanders, every reasonable tool should be made available to help solve the problem. Community choice aggregation can be one of those tools.