Community Clean Energy Aggregation is based on legislation that allows local governments (counties and municipalities) to buy electricity wholesale and sell it to their own businesses and residents. Only 5 states have passed specific legislation that allows community energy aggregation: Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and California.
Solutions that Scale
Community Energy Aggregation (CEA) is a unique tool that allows counties and municipalities in New Jersey (as well as in California, Ohio, and Massachusetts) to procure and produce their own energy. Residents in such communities automatically become customers of the system, and businesses may opt in if they find it in their interest to do so.
The energy that is “aggregated” by the county or municipality can be electricity or gas or both; it can be whatever combination of renewables, conservation, and traditional sources the community determines; and it is delivered by the regulated utilities to the consumer in a standard way. Unlike investor-owned producers, municipal and county governments have no incentive to promote consumption, since they are nonprofit entities. They can invest in clean technologies, support local economic development, enhance efficiency and conservation, purchase energy from a variety of providers at a scale that makes it cost-effective, and provide energy savings to both business and residential consumers.