Three Upper Valley towns will vote on whether to adopt community power at Town Meeting.

If approved, Canaan, Cornish and Sunapee would become the next towns to join a growing list of more than 70 New Hampshire communities to take control over local electricity rates.

“Community power can offer more stable and competitive prices in the long run and in addition offers expanded choice in the renewable content of the electricity,” said Cornish Energy Committee Chairwoman Joanna Sharf.

Meanwhile in Enfield, where community power launched in 2023, residents will vote to establish a new capital reserve fund for energy efficiency projects and an optional increase in the default community power rate to fill out the fund.

Community power is a movement in New Hampshire that allows towns to buy electricity for residents in an attempt to reduce and stabilize energy costs and increase renewable energy options for customers. The electricity transmission lines and other physical infrastructure are still owned and maintained by private utilities.

In the three towns looking to adopt community power, residents will vote on whether to accept plans written by designated committees that outline details such as organizational structure, funding, rate setting methods and more. Each plan was written with support from the nonprofit Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, CPCNH, and approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

CPCNH is a Lebanon-based nonprofit started in 2021 that provides resources to support implementing and operating community power systems, including covering the initial cost.

The plans make the town a default energy supplier. Customers who currently receive power through Liberty or Eversource will be automatically enrolled in their local community power program. Residents can choose to opt-in or out of the program at any time and can boost their service to include more renewable energy, the plans say.

“I think now more than ever, the town and its residents and ratepayers should keep all its options on the table and community power offers an excellent option of adding more choice and cost savings to ratepayers,” Sunapee Energy Aggregation Committee Chairwoman Catherine Bushueff said in an interview.

All three plans stipulate that the program will not launch unless the initial community power rates are lower than other utilities.

In Enfield there has been almost $500,000 of savings among community power customers compared to private utility rates, Energy Aggregation Committee member and CPCNH board treasurer Kim Quirk said.

In Canaan, Electric Aggregation Committee Chair Hope Stragnell said she is most excited about how local rate control could benefit the town over time and increase “community resilience.”

“Eventually, instead of the money going back to an investor owned company …. these reserves will be able to benefit Canaan directly,” Stragnell said. “It’s quite a few years down the road but there will be programs and projects.”

In Enfield, that “down the road” possibility may become a reality this year. Residents will vote on two separate community power articles at Town Meeting; both must pass to go into effect.

The first article would establish a new “Enfield Local Rate” for community power that lets the Selectboard decide every six months whether to add $0.002 per kilowatt hour of electricity to the CPCNH Granite Basic rate — the cheapest of four power options offered by CPCNH that also includes the least renewable energy.

“The proceeds of such adder would be disbursed to the Town to be used for energy efficiency projects and initiatives,” the article says.

By evaluating rates every six months, the Selectboard can look at the Granite Basic rate and private utility rates and decide if adding the $0.002 increase would still save residents money. “If it’s not going to be less, then they can not set the rate,” Quirk said.

The second article would create a designated capital reserve fund.

Possible projects include buying solar panels for a new public safety building or creating an energy audit program for residents to cover the cost of evaluating their energy efficiency, Quirk said.

Establishing a local rate that will contribute to energy efficiency projects is one of the “main benefits” of being part of CPCNH, Quirk said. Because the coalition is member-owned, “it’s really focused on how to help each community benefit,” rather than on profit.

Throwing a possible wrench into community power plans, however, is that for the first time since the coalition launched in 2023, CPCNH’s rates are currently higher than some private utilities for the period from Feb. 1 through July 31 of this year — one of two six-month periods that electric companies in New Hampshire set default energy service rates for. They will increase again in March, according to CPCNH news releases.

As a result, if the articles are approved, community power cannot launch in Canaan, Cornish and Sunapee until at least August when the rates are set again.

For Canaan’s Stragnell, this may not be such a bad thing.

“It’ll give us more time to get more information out to people, it was going to be kind of a quick rollout,” Stragnell said.

And in Enfield, where the program is already rolling, Quirk said there were surprisingly few questions from residents about why rates were higher and how to switch services, but she always encourages people to look at rates every six months and decide where to get their electricity.

“People understand in the long term this is a great program to stick with,” Quirk said. “Community power allows us to have our own control over prices better, control over any programs we want to develop and not be beholden to the Public Utilities Commission.”

Canaan’s Australian ballot voting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 11 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Canaan Fire Station, 62 NH Route 118.

Australian ballot voting in Sunapee is March 11 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Sherburne Gymnasium, 555 NH Route 11.

Enfield’s Town Meeting is Saturday, March 15 at 9 a.m. at the Enfield Village School, 271 US Route 4.

The Cornish Town Meeting business session begins at 10 a.m. on March 15 at Cornish Elementary School, 274 Town House Road.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.