Community Power Comes to Durham

Durham Joins Community Power Coalition of NH to Bring More Electric Power Choices to Residents 

At its November 6th meeting, Durham’s Town Council authorized Durham to switch to Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire (CPCNH) as the default power provider for the town, starting in March 2024.  By combining the purchasing power of over 50 cities, towns, and counties in New Hampshire, CPCNH is able to provide savings off the default utility rate from Eversource, and to provide an easy way for residents to optionally select greener energy sources at attractive rates.

Mass mailing to Durham Residents

All Durham residents should have received a 4-page letter from CPCNH in late January 2024, with details about the program, the different rate plans and pricing, exceptions for certain customers, and telephone, email, and website contact information:

A copy of that Introductory letter can be viewed at this link: Customer Notice for Durham .

Community Power Information Session

The Community Power Information Session for Durham was held on January 30, 2024 at 7PM in Town Hall; approximately 55 people attended in person or by Zoom. A copy of the slides presented can be found here, and a video recording of the presentation is available on the DCAT link Info Session.

Most all residents will be migrated to the default Granite Basic rate for Durham that will take effect in March, and is shown in the table below:

Power Options

Renewable Content

Rate (¢ per kWh)

Estimated cost per month*

Utility Default Energy Service

NH Electric Co-op

24.3%

10.161 ¢

~ $66

Eversource

24.3%

8.285 ¢

~ $54

Community Power Coalition of NH

Clean 100

100%

12.4 ¢

~ $81

Clean 50

50%

9.4 ¢

~ $61

Granite Plus

33%

8.4 ¢

~ $55

Granite Basic (default)

24.3%

8.1 ¢

~ $53

*Based on NH average of 650 kWh/month usage.

Residents may choose one of the rate plans with higher green content, or choose Eversource, by going to the above website after January 22nd

Net Metering Update

One category of customers that will not be automatically migrated to Community Power are those with solar power installations and a Net Metering arrangement with the utility. Currently the Utilities have not completed implementing the required accounting and billing capabilities to allow CPCNH to fully support Net Metering.  Approximately 130 Durham residents currently have solar PV installations and are affected by this issue, which CPCNH is continuing to work on with the Utilities and the PUC. A more extensive explanation of the current Net Metering limitations is now available on the CPCNH FAQ site: https://www.communitypowernh.gov/faqs   Scroll down to #17 and click on the button for a 4-page PDF file.