N.Y. Municipal Consortium Representing Over 300 Entities Seeks PSC Approval for Opt-Out Aggregation (Albany Expresses Interest)

The Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance (MEGA), a New York local development corporation that manages aggregated procurement of energy products and services for 36 county governments and more than 275 municipal entities throughout the state, has sought approval from the PSC to conduct a "demonstration" two-year opt-out municipal aggregation program among a "small subsection of its participant municipalities."

The Alliance's petition did not specify how large this small subsection would be.

The Alliance said that, to date, 31 municipalities have expressed support for a MEGA municipal aggregation, as well as interest in participating in a future municipal aggregation program. The Alliance has collected these letters of interest from a number of county, city, town and village governments throughout the state, representing approximately 380,000 households total.

One such letter of support is from the City of Albany, which stated, "The City of Albany is interested in considering this option in the future and supports the adoption of additional CCA pilot programs within New York State."

Also expressing interest have been the City of Ithaca, County of Broome, County of Genesee, County of Fulton, County of Saratoga, County of Tioga, and the County of Tompkins, among others.

Interested communities are located throughout the state, from communities served by several different utilities (Central Hudson, National Grid, NYSEG, and RG&E), and in multiple NYISO load zones (zones A, B, C, E, F and G), the Alliance said.

The Alliance's hope is to, "eventually expand[] the Program’s availability to all MEGA participant municipalities wanting to consider such an approach, and any other community looking to participate."

"At this time, MEGA's proposed CCA Program would focus on aggregating residential supply," the Alliance said

Docket 16-M-0015