this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers thank you everyone for coming both uh here in person and online um this is the eastampton uh public hearing for our Municipal aggregation program uh which is in the process of uh being I guess the finalized uh based on the the work that we've done so far and the public input that we're getting throughout this one Monon long period uh my name is Jamie pette I'm the chair of the eastampton energy advisory committee we are the committee that advises the mayor on energy related matters we've been spearheading this Municipal aggregation effort uh over the past few years um I'm joined here today by uh folks from good energy who is our consultant on this program this is Allison mcneel and rafid ramen um they have been working uh on the plan itself and as well as the the public distribution of that getting the the uh plan website up and running which we uh rolled out at the beginning of this process a couple weeks ago um what we're here to do today is to um have them give a quick presentation overview of of what we've done so far where we're at what the plan entails at this point um at that point we will open uh things up for for public comment um anybody in person or online that would like to do that uh we'll be able to to offer those um there is still opportunity to provide public comment through July 6th via the program website which is eastampton community electricity. comom uh so tonight is not the only chance uh for that public input do not feel like you you have to but of course we welcome any any comment any questions uh input that we would like to get um or anyone would like to give so um a quick thanks to uh the mayor and the mayor's office for their help uh getting us to this point as well as well as the city council uh who did pass a resolution back I think in 20122 2023 uh giving us the go-ahead to to move forward with this process um we have a few more steps in the process outside of this we have a meeting with doer uh coming up this week to help us uh get some some input from their perspective on this that is a requirement uh before we are allowed to submit our plan to dpu for final approval um at the end of the public uh review period um we will then take all that potentially package all that up start getting that to dpu uh they have a whole review process that we'll go through once they potentially have approved it then we would be able to move forward with uh with aggregation but I don't want to step on the the toes of the presentation that's coming up here they'll go through all that and we'll be happy to talk more about that here in a little bit so um with that said let me turn it over to let me get this right thing open here not used to having to run large like hybrid sort of thing so bear with me here normally our committee meetings are much smaller than this uh hi everyone uh my name is rafid Rahman and uh I work as the sustainability and engagement strategist at good energy and I've been working with um Jamie and my other colleague Patrick who's in here to develop this aggregation plan and um this is my colleague Alison mcneel she's the client success specialist and she will also be the project manager for East Hampton so after the project gets launched any Communications that needs to be done about the program and if you um you can get it through her and we have all our contact details uh here at the presentation that you will be seeing shortly so um thank you so much for joining us today so the first half of the presentation will be done by Allison and then I'll take over so thank you for being here thanks okay hope everybody can see the plan well enough we do have it up here folks online I am sharing it in the in the meet so um if you hopefully be able to see everything adequately yep and we can get these posted as well you got slides um hi everybody thanks for having us tonight my name is Alison mcneel as rafid said I'm one of the client Specialists on the good energy team we are the consultant to the city uh on this program so we're here tonight as an extension of the city to talk with you about this um this city authorized this in 2022 so it's been a long time coming we're super excited to get to this point um so for tonight's public hearing we'll walk through the basics of the program and then I'll let rafid get into some actual plan details then we'll open up to comments and questions um in here and online as well we can go on to the next slide perfect um so we'll go on detail and all the parts here uh in just a minute but at a glance this program is an aggregation it's municiple aggregation program essentially that just means the city will Select A supplier who will provide alternative electricity to all of our residents and businesses here in eastampton um in this program eversource is going to continue with all of their delivery services that they currently offer that's things like billing maintaining wires and poles responding to storm outages um so just the supply portion of your bill will be what changes next thank you MH um so there are already 170 aggregation programs like this uh in Massachusetts some of your neighbors belter toown and Hadley are two of them um belter toown actually just launched this month uh but we have this little graph here it's a little difficult to see but the green is Municipal aggregation customers and these are the whole customer base so for the state of Massachusetts now we actually see that more residential customers are served by Municipal aggregations then uh by the utility the basic service utility um so very popular program it's all over the state um so really excited to be bringing it to eastampton um so the main goal of these programs really is to offer new alternative electricity Supply um they can provide more renewable energy but U mainly they can provide stability so these prices will be locked in at a rate um for a set pricing term whereas the utility will change every 6 months on their Cycles um and we'd also like to include some Greener options as well for you all um a couple things to note about these programs is that they do not affect benefits like low income discounts budget billing if you have solar and you use net metering um none of those benefits are impacted so it's really just the supply side let's see how do I get this to move now um there we go oh perfect thanks awesome so before we uh dive into the details I just want to take a moment to uh look at the work that we've done to get to this point here um so earlier in June the mayor's office released this draft plan for all of you to review give your comments we're still in this review period so you have until July 6th as Jamie said to submit any comments um as well as whatever you say tonight we'll have um input we'll also be meeting um oh actually that's a bit of our look forward so I I'll stay I'll stay here um but this meeting was also publicized uh we had a press release go out we want to make sure that people know where to come bring their comments we do have this posted online as well as hard copies for you all to review the actual plan as well now then looking forward um to tonight we'll do the public hearing um and then you'll have until July 6 submit your comments and questions we'll also meet with the Department of energy resources to get their feedback and consult with them on our plan um and uh after all of this closes July 6 then we get the do's feedback we will take this feedback and the mayor will have an opportunity to approve this plan and give it to dpu for their review um once we actually get dpu approval uh then we'll have the opportunity if we want to to go out and select a supplier for the program yeah next slide please um so basically let's dive into uh some of the plan details so let's start with the goals of the eastampton community electricity program so first the first goal is basically kind of leveraging bulk purchasing power to secure more competitive rates and favorable favorable terms for conditions of the community and promote and utilize clean energy sources and broaden consumer options for electricity Supply choices so these three are the main goals of the community electricity program um so let's dive in into the next slide please yes so uh the program roll out as Allison mentioned that at program launch East Hampton Community electricity will only replace eversource as the city's new default electricity Supply the delivery will still be um done by eversource and just to um keep some things in mind that uh eastampton residents who are already with eversource basic service will be eligible for automatic enrollment um and East and residents who have a third- party supplier they can choose to opt into the program however we recommend that uh residents who have third party suppliers they contact their current suppliers before opting into the program to see if they have any termination fees or if there are any other rules that uh they need to be aware of just to be on the safe side and there's also options for all residents that if they don't want to be part of the program they can choose to opt out um as you as already mentioned that um eversource will continue to handle billing and maintenance and this does not affect um solar net metering or any lwi income discount rates and we actually got a question from uh you know one of the residents before the public hearing that you know like if um you know uh the program starts is there are going to be like more discount on the supply side after this after they join into the program so the key is that low-income discount applies to the entire Bill both Supply and delivery and this remains unchanged uh with the community electricity program so if customers joining the program uh you know after they join the program they would not incur any additional costs as they would receive a 42% discount on Supply because that's the uh percentage that's the discount that eversource gives to low uh to low-income residents um regarding the program roll out this is also important to mention that um we do offer a 30-day opt out period uh where we kind of give out educational materials uh before the program launches so people um get to um read more about the program hear more about the program and then make their own decision whether or not they would like to be in the program or not um yeah next slide please okay yeah so uh these are the three products so East Hampton kind of offers multiple products but one of them will be the default known as the East Hampton standard and um this default product was basically designed as a win-win uh both for environmental and economic reasons so our goal is that this product kind of provides uh savings through competitive prices but is also cleaner and has more renewable energy than the utility uh and this kind of a default product is very common uh amongst our clients um like um Allison mentioned that Hadley and beler toown also um has this kind of a default and um but we also have optional products so uh for eastampton standard um we have we offer like a 10% uh more renewable energy than the state standards um but if some people want to choose a more costeffective option and they don't want more renewable energy they can always opt down to East Hampton basic to maximize potential savings um but for some residents it's who are very environmentally conscious and who would want sign uh a significant additional renewable energy and wouldn't mind paying the higher price premium they can also opt up to the East Hampton plus so to summarize the city is creating a program where where residents and businesses can choose their electric uh electricity Supply from different options and like we me like I mentioned earlier they can automatically join but can also opt out or choose a different plan and the program offers a standard option and other choices with different renewable energy levels and prices and eligible customers will receive a notice with details about the plans uh before the program starts and people can join or leave the program anytime without any penalty the program is still being developed and expected to start hopefully by early 2025 and um so let's start the public hearing and if anybody has any questions they're all welcome and in case you want more information please check the website uh it's um the East Hampton Community electric.com thank you great thank you Alison and rafida um so we are now here uh available for the public comment period um anyone that's here in person that would like to speak can feel free to uh step over to the podium over there and use the microphone so that you can be captured um here uh anyone that is online that would like to speak feel free to to raise your hand and I will uh do my best to get you turned on so that uh we can uh have you ask your question live here as well we have somebody at the microphone welcome mayor thank you chair um my apologies for for being late um one right off the bat I I need to express a lot of gratitude uh to the energy advisory uh committee but especially our chair um I don't know how long you and I have been going back and forth with email I was very dubious um I I trust him as a person um but was like this doesn't make sense and people um and very patiently you made the case you made a great um uh partnership with good energy our procurement and financial team has done a lot of due diligence and taken a look at what you've done for other communities um and what you'll do for East Hampton and um you know again to the credit to the chair also members of of uh of the committee for walking through what is a much more difficult and arduous process than it really needs to be thank you dpu um but this also this plan really goes you know I'm tremendously in favor and the timing um really is fantastic because it folds into that climate action plan that is about to come out um but also the relief it gives our citizens um in a in an increasingly difficult Market you know you turn on your light used to get an energy bill and then you were done um with the different levels of supply and demand and mix of um of the sources and and whatnot it's very confusing um and candidly it was what caused my uh suspicion about that you know handing it over to a third party um but the AG has a great paper around individuals that are trying to make the best decision and lose track of it um ends up costing more and again the um the advisory uh commission just kept coming back with like this is why every single step um that said it goes part and partial with being a climate leader uh this really helps the city overall and our climate leadership application we want to be in the first cohort and um this uh allow would allow us to access um money f for maybe Community solar but also um for uh different options for folks to uh access aggregation whether that be for Ev Chargers or EV cars and and whatnot um so it it's a it is a a plan and a program that I am wholeheartedly uh endorse and I'm glad to see happening the impact um it doesn't always follow the logical connections of the impact but what I just mentioned um are just some of them and I know that there there's more um our Municipal vulnerability project like to have this in place that goes right on our next three grants um that begin to redo Parson and Ferry Street which you two probably don't know but anybody from eastampton definitely knows that intersection and where the water goes so um thank you uh Jamie and and your team for your diligence um and patience with me uh and also the good energy team you've really walked us through uh in the beginning I had so many all questions and great answers to each one of them so um yeah wrote a letter in favor called dpu nobody answered but um I feel I feel good for the beginning of 2025 thank you very much thanks mayor um just say a few things to follow up on that the number one dpu process has been very arduous over the the years for a lot of communities a lot of communities waited even once they got through this whole part of the process for for years years and years for dpu to review and approve um in some cases I heard as many as three years things were sitting in que uh the current leadership at the state level has pushed dpu to to uh refine that and speed it up um so they have shown a lot of uh a lot more effort now to get things through the process faster um we do anticipate that once we get there it will be you know maybe 180 day period versus 120 okay thank you it's not finalized yet the the guidelines are still uh being developed to be finalized but currently where it where it is it's it's been said that 120 days is what it should take the DP to finalize okay programs so we're optimistic that we we'll be able to get through that part of the process faster than we've gotten through the parts to this point um and I appreciate the the kind words from the mayor again my having the rest of my Committee involved has been really helpful uh you know I've been slow at times it's all it's all uh a team effort to get all this stuff done um to the points some of the points about aggregation I just speak you know from from my perspective as n Hampton resident as the chair of the committee um it does dovetail really nicely with the climate action plan and some of the goals that the city has it allows us to support uh cleaner energy it allows us to of course aggregate the buying power of all of our residents and businesses to hopefully uh alleviate some of that fluu ation that we see in the eversource rates which now you know change twice per year um and never ever go down over long periods of time so being able to aggregate that buying power bring it somewhere and get a contract in place for multiple Years hopefully uh allows us to give a little more cost certainty to Residents it allows us to you know again savings cannot be guaranteed in the program because you never know what's going to happen in a six-month Market but you know we like the odds and what we like what we've seen in other municipalities to save their residents money over the long term um lots of uh municipalities have have been able to do that have been able to document the savings that they've generated for residents even while supplying a higher level of renewable energy um you know even sometimes the 100% level can can work out to be cheaper than than the eversource base rate it just you know it it all depends on market conditions it depends on uh the bids that you get and and the the suppliers that you end up working with so um the good news for us is that we're not locked into anything right until we sign a contract we can say we can walk away and say yeah you know what these rates aren't what we want they don't look like they're going to be competitive you know we're only they're only giving it to us for a year we're going to wait and and come back around so we don't have to do anything right this just gives us the option and if we then look at something and again we've got lots of good people uh on the consultant side as well as here in our city to to put eyes on this and to think you know does this make sense uh is this the you know is this the right time um is this the right the right program is this the right contract for us to lock in so uh again the pro the process here just gives us the chance to do it it does not commit us to to doing anything anybody else have any comments questions they'd like to bring up hell hello I'm Donald Tory from 17 School Street East Hampton and so eversource is going to still Supply everything and take care of the lines that's correct now how do they make up the loss from not supplying the electricity I take I can take a step at it oh sorry um so eversource the the utilities actually can't make I can't oh I'm sorry the utilities can't actually make a d off of their supply it's a regulated market for them they can make as much as they want off of the delivery but they can't actually make money off the supply so they don't care who you choose as a supplier whether it's third party through an aggregation um so they won't be making any of that up they can't make money on that half anywh who um so but they'll still be delivering doing all the delivery services so that's billing wire and pole maintenance store outage response everything except supplying your electricity okay now uh I know they try to they're trying to do away with natural gas uh wouldn't that be a lot cheaper to generate electricity than everything you're talking about and then lower the supply costs sure oh sorry did you no good yeah um so the the options that rafid went through some of the product options we tried to kind of capture the goal of these programs in those three where default has a little extra Renewables um just so everyone knows the the state standard applies to all generators so all all suppliers so the massachusett state standard for 2023 and 2024 is 62 and 63% so regardless of who's making it 23 was 59 2 oh 59 thanks 24 so 62% of whoever is making this electricity has to come from these renewable energy resources it's broken down in a couple different ways but regardless of whoever's supplying it there has to be some Renewables in there that's how the state is kind of using these standards to increase the growth and demand of Renewables here in the state so it's it's already in our supply but our program our goals for these products is to go above and beyond ideally with this by buying more Rex putting it on the grid we're cleaning the Grid at the same time as creating demand so we want the energy Market to know we want more of that give us more of that um so yes of course it's cheaper to have dirtier power this program is actually I it's actually trying to make things a little Greener but if you want the cheapest option possible that basic is the same electricity that you're getting from ever source so if that's what that's what interests you that would be like a fixed rate at the exact electricy you're getting from ever Source now what sources are you using for Renewables that are going to replace all of the clean natural gas sure that's up to the suppliers to to determine in the end what are they I mean are they solar or wind you're using solar wind and uh solar wind in orobic digestion um Hydro power to small Hydro oh small Hydro as well they're they're all um called ma class one recks that's what we use for our additional Rex um but within the state standard which we also follow in our products it there's a whole bunch of things Ma knew basically just means that it's coming from renewable energy all the things were feated just listed but they were projects made after 1997 yeah and they're all within uh sourced within the New England region not from Texas or Iowa how reliable are your Renewables do they work at night well again so this the supplier is good energy is not the supplier right and we're not and the city is not the supplier the the suppliers are sorry any of your large companies that have to supply electricity to an entire grid and that's uh overseen by New England ISO among other things they have any supplier that's operating within that grid is subject to their oversight to make sure that the grid is up and reliable so the the mix of things that are coming to us from the supplier that we choose is already vetted within that process of like they're able to sell within this market so they're not and correct me if I'm a little bit off base with any of this but so again the the basic option that we would offer is the same Supply that you'd be getting if you just remained an eversource customer those suppliers can get some of that from natural gas they can get some of it from other other sources the state mandates a certain amount of Renewables in the mix um because that's something that every supplier in the state has to do and so what you know again that that standard option that we would have the basic option we' have would be the same as that these extra opin options for higher levels of Renewables are again things that the supplier is able to offer right now you can go out and find a supplier to offer you a third party suppliers exist already and anybody can go find a third- party supplier um they can choose what's to some extent what sort of energy might be in that mix if they want 100% Ren renewable energy there's a supplier that can do that for them if they want something that's more basic they can find that too but nothing is going to have less than the state mandated amount of Renewables um and again that's all vetted through through the iso and through other processes to make sure that the grid is reliable and that the lights turn on when you flick the switch what perent are we looking at savings to the a senior citizen's on fixed income are they going to be paying more or paying less when you're done with this so again we would go out to bid and suppliers would would offer would offer us bids and we would compare that against the existing eversource rates um we would want to lock in something that's lower than the existing eversource rates by aggregating the buying power of all residents and businesses we are optimistic that we'd be able to find a supplier that would give us a lower rate and again as eversource every six months they have to they have a six-month Market they have to go back out to bid and and they're as you see their prices tend to go up pretty considerably year-over-year uh something that we would be able to do is lock in a multi-year contract maybe as many as two or three years three years yes so that would be at a rate that we know hopefully is already lower than where ever source is at so as we're going like this and every going like this there's your savings that every customer would be able to be able to access and and who who's making a decision with these third party person or suppliers is it one person or one group I I'm just looking at you know is it a good job to be the one in charge of getting the third party person or supplier right well we would bring go out to bid as a city uh we would get those bids they would be reviewed by my committee I would assume ultimately it's the mayor's office that would contract with that so the third party suppliers so what happens is during the bidding oh sorry sorry during the bidding process um before the bidding happens um like we will uh the city the Consultants will work with the city you know to choose the supplier as well and the contracts they will be thoroughly um checked and assured by our legal council who will work with the city's legal council to make sure that the contracts uh have their proper uh amendments and after that the bidding process will happen and you know whichever um Supply is supplier is chosen we make sure that the contract is already like decided on and everything is already like agreed upon both between uh the Consultants the city and of course the supplier so that that quality assurance is something that the Consultants will definitely will be providing the city and I would just say yeah the Consultants in this case I know that we've we've chosen they have a track record they've worked with a lot of other municipalities around the state they know this process inside and out they know how to get the you know the best OPP opportunities best deals for for the cities that they work with um so they are really the first line of like you know first the experts in this what have they saved so far for okay so I'll talk about Medford um Medford Massachusetts so since their Inception in 2017 they have saved about $10 million um through this community electricity program there's other examples as well U from the top of my head uh I can talk about Medford and um I think uh each year they purchase about 6,900 megawatt hour of voluntary renewable energy which helps them displace 5.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide which is equivalent to kind of removing 500 um uh you know 500 gasoline cars so it has been a win-win situation both environmentally and economically and they too like for their standard product offer like a 10% renewable energy much like East Hampton's going to be offering so how much will we offset Chinese Coal fire power plants um are we going to do anything or is it just our Wheels I mean we don't control what happens in China we we're not we won't be sourcing anything from there they are what we do they're going to do more well we control what we can control this is a you know for us as a municipality where do we what fingers can we put on what levers right this is one way that we cost savings what's that I'm looking at Cost savings yeah that's that's our goal that's first and foremost that's what I want is to be able to save people money on their electric bill I want to save money on my electric bill we can still stay with ever Source if we want yes it's an opt yeah anyone can choose to to opt out of the program again no no penalty to opt in opt out at any time so okay that's uh that's how it works thanks very much for your for your questions I I I just and I I should have um mentioned this thank you Mr Tor for prompting um the procurement process um is actually there's a a quality assurance from good energy there is also overview from doe the department of energy resources the RFP uh that goes out to bid follows 30b procurement laws uh the exact same ones we follow when we go out to bid for the school when we go out to bid for a car um we have a a certified procurement officer that looks over all rfps regardless of uh having the support of a consultant or um the other sides uh attorney whatnot the bids are put back and they are graded um in a in a grid that the state puts forward and that usually the certified procurement officer is always one of the reviewing um parties in this case um the chair of the commission would be and depending on what the RFP looks like uh our procurement officer will suggest a third party I mean a third person that has a direct connection to um the city Consultants are never a part of that rating committee and all of the ratings of the bids we get need to be in writing when we have gone out for energy Contracting in the past we work with Consultants similar to good energy and we start reviewing and and marking the the daily price of energy and and watch the trends uh and we have been very successful um in over the long term um and and but the procurement process there's a little more here because it's energy and the the complexity of it um but it comes down to the same 30b process that the city must follow um for any uh procurement that we're or bid we're putting out for so um thank you more steps but it comes down to the same comes down to our procurement thank you I should have yeah should have left that answer to other people who have never been involved in the procurement process I'm just trying to make it up as I go um I see there's a hand online we do have one more person here in person uh to to speak so I'm going to let them go and then we'll get to our online folks yeah John Pepe I'm on the energy advisory committee addressing the the matter of cost savings um I just found an article recently on from the mass Municipal Association which represents the 351 Municipal governments around the state um on aggregation programs reducing costs and increasing sustainability and and the numbers uh say that about 80% of the Community Choice energy or aggregation programs offer reduced electricity costs um about 60% of them are rated green which mean they have a higher percentage of renewable energy uh certificates than required by the Commonwealth um 30% or around 30 35% of them are actually at 100% renewable energy um and the dollar savings um they found that 80% of the these Community Choice energy electricity programs are saving 88 cents a kilowatt hour so about $93 per household per year um a smaller percentage of them I think it's 35% are saving a penny a kilowatt hour which is $106 uh per household and uh there were a you that we're saving $271 per household per year so it gives you an idea what the possibilities are I don't know what happens with the other 20% that aren't saving either people are opting out or they're getting they're just choosing to pay more for as a city for a higher higher green package so I thought I'd share that the answer that question than you great thank you all right I'm trying to figure out how to let this person online ask their question can you hear me oh yeah I can oh great um hi everyone um I'm K jro mcade I'm resident of pring 5 in eastampton lived here my whole life um I'm super excited to see this uh happening on the city level um I'm definitely a proponent of green energy and I've seen this uh happen in surrounding communities and I'm very thrilled with all the hard work uh that you guys have put in and I'm very happy to see the mayor speak in support and um just all the momentum around this is great to see um I guess one question I have is I know that like poio has a little bit of a different situation where they're also generating some of their own power um is this sort of a step in that direction I don't know what um what resources we have in East Hampton for Generation but I don't know if this helps us get to that as well um if you could just speak to that if there's any thought put into that yeah thank you so much for your question so one of the key benefits of this program is that we kind of avoid the infrastructure and financial risks unlike Holio like while it's true that many suppliers um like uh I mean we we're not exactly like going into that route of you know being that infrastructure like we're just going to be having another supplier uh you know supply for you guys but we're not going to be like like we're not looking for East Hampton to be its own facility or anything so we're not uh going to be doing that yeah there's another process that we would have to go through as a city to even potentially go down that road and um again you do take on all the risk then of owning the infrastructure and maintenance and and things like that that that come with uh you know being an electricity supplier um so at this point and mayor can correct me if I'm wrong but not not any any thought of like becoming uh you know having our own Holio gas and electric type type situation or or any sort of uh public you know utility owned by the city all right well thank you anyway you're welcome um Carolyn online you have a question if you can unmute [Music] yourself I think did I unmute myself you sure yes okay great um yes I am Caroline Cushing I live on Main Street I'm really just saying thank you I am an individual homeowner I am concerned about the environment and just on my own researching things or you know it's a lot to do um and I uh also believe that as you know as a whole city we will have a lot more buying power I happen to work at mass aabon at Arcadia and I am not involved in any of our programs working on this by just raise money and I know that you know in 2019 hearing about it from Mass aabon Community aggregation and doing a little research and mentioning it to my city counselor so for I've been watching this for many years and I'm really grateful that it is coming to East Hampton and that we can both you know have Greener energy and most likely save money for for for all of the community so just thank you for your hard work and I am very much in support of this thank you thank you Carolyn peace my name is Jack cikowski and I'm coming from Hadley I don't know what the rules are here is it our right to share as far as all right so we yeah all right and so I'm involved on the climate change Committee in the town of Hadley and we've had aggregation and recently there was an open Period of enrollment for the minimum price per kilowatt for the person who had the question about what's the price per kilowatt it was about 11 cents for the base rate and if you wanted to go with the more green you could pay up to 14 cents um per kilowatt but either way it was significantly less noticeably less than what you would be paying for eversource so there were there was lots of questions and confusion in town uh we constellation is the supplier for us and eversource delivers it for us but almost everybody can save money by doing this it's been something that's really worked well for the town thank you great really appreciate that input um yeah in comparison I think I saw the upcoming eversource rate that's about to go into effect 14.8 cents kilowatt hour I believe something like that and that's that's actually coming down from the the higher winter rates it does tend to come down a little bit in the in the second half of the Year versus the first half of the year but again over time that um you know it'll it'll go right back up I think it'll be February 1st now when they when they reset it the next time that I have that about right 14.8 okay good did a little bit of homework you did um anybody else online or here in person that has a comment a question um oh wait uh Carolyn I think already asked her question so I think got one in here we do yeah please come on up hi my name is Paul Cody from Mona Drive uh in the past you know way back we uh had a solar farm set up on O'Neal street and I'm wondering if um part of what we were doing here and saving uh money for the town that was basically for the town use right for like and whatever you know was it so has that been successful in the past and can we use that experience now and going forward um you mean the solar farm you talking about the one on Oliver Street Oliver Street okay I'm sorry no it's okay yeah um want to make sure and well maybe you might be able to speak to that a little bit more more readily than I can yes that uh solar field has been fantastic for the city um and and it's really a part of the revamp of how we of uh how we access electricity uh the solar field is high production uh we just we went through 20 years already and uh signed a new contract what that allows us to do is it does take down our common uh lights a little bit off of the street lights a lot off of our schools in this building the real um energy drop which of course then um puts us in a place where we're not going out to the grid for additional um in preparation for this as well as an MMA program where we aggregate uh some of our energy we asked ever source and uh they actually agreed um to give us the solar credits from that very um High producing field in cash rather than solar credits so now we're getting checks every month and it goes directly to we just create this past um uh budget year just passed um a separate account and line item so you can watch the money from the solar credits um I love just saying cash uh it goes in there and uh we it's just been fantastic because now we can obtain more credits we have more flexibility for the city for the residents and we're taking down those common electricity costs but the that solar field has far uh surpassed our expectations of what it could do for the city we we'd love to to do more we're kind of looking at at how to do that now but that was a great question I I should have mentioned that excellent yeah one other thing aggregation does potentially allow us to do is that you can um have certain money that that is part of this that maybe would be set aside for U Municipal uh solar or other energy projects um part of the program can also fund uh like a somebody to oversee the program at the city level um a staff member for the amount of time that it takes to to over do oversight because we will need somebody on the city payroll who is helping to manage this program uh sort of sort of dayto day and the exact I think shape of that is still a little bit up in the air but um something that we'll be working towards uh as we go through the rest of the process all right anybody else anything they'd like to add do appreciate the wide variety of of questions and perspectives appreciate those of you who are looking stuff up on the spot or bringing experience uh with this to us um there obviously you know there is a a Rich history already in the in the the Commonwealth of municipalities that are doing this you know we were we are far from the first um there are others that are in doing it along with us right now um and there's a lot of lot of history and a lot of experience out there uh and good energy has been a great partner mention them again because they they have done this uh and not only just in Massachusetts right you've done it you do work in other states as well um so so there's you know a lot a lot of uh talent and and um expertise that comes along with that and and working uh with this so again very excited to to get to the next part of the process um very thankful for for all the input that we've received both here uh and online again the public comment period is open through July 6th uh so eastampton Community electricity. there is a uh a form there that you can submit uh questions or comments um and yeah I think again hard copy of the the draft of the plan is available in the city clerk's office is also available online uh at the plan website um so that is the the draft that we have now that is not the final one that will be submitted yet but uh that's next thing we'll be working on once we get the public comment period finalized I think if you go maybe to the next slide okay just in case there's maybe outstanding questions and I this is rafid and I's contact information um that you can hang on to even through the programs launch um we'll be overseeing this directly so you guys can take those down as well we have direct lines as well right and yeah this meeting is being recorded uh both here and edia has been on uh monitoring and and recording this for us we appreciate their their participation uh and assistance with this uh I want to thank the the IT department for for helping me figure all this stuff out today so we can get this up and running um definitely appreciate everybody's time and and energy uh going into this is that that's definitely the last one that's definitely the last one all right thank you thanks for having us thank you Alison thank you rafid thank you everybody for coming uh and again we'll look forward to receiving any more comments or questions that you have and we'll keep everybody posted on what happens next e