Lexington’s Community Choice Program

Welcome to Lexington’s Community Choice program, a Town electricity program that increases the amount of renewable energy in your electricity to 100%.

If you receive a letter in the mail, a phone call, or a visit about your electricity…

Lexington’s Community Choice program sends a single communication in the mail about this program to Eversource Basic Service customers. That letter includes the Town seal at the top, and the names of both Town Manager Carl Valente’s and Sustainable Lexington Chair Mark Sandeen at the end.

Any other letter, phone call, or visit that you receive about your electricity does not represent Lexington’s Community Choice program. 

If Eversource is your electricity supplier, you will be automatically enrolled in the program. You do not need to provide additional information to participate. Any person or company who asks for additional information does not represent Lexington’s Community Choice program.

You have the right to choose any electricity supplier. However, we recommend that you do not share your Eversource account number or other personal information with any company unless you are ready to sign a contract with that company.

Read the Town’s official notice on this subject

The program is an electricity aggregation, which is a form of group purchasing in which a city or town selects an electricity supplier on behalf of residents and businesses. Under this program, Eversource will continue to deliver electricity Lexington, but Lexington will now use a competitive bid process to choose its own electricity supplier. Participating in the program will give you a new rate and a new electricity supplier on the supplier services portion of your Eversource electric bill.

Lexington has signed a contract with Agera Energy to supply electricity to the Town from July 2017 meter reads until December 2018 meter reads.

New clean-energy choices

The program offers three new alternatives. Two provide 100% renewable energy:

  • 100% Green: 100% renewable energy. Provides least 17% from renewable energy projects in New England, which is 5% over the minimum required by the state. New Eversource Basic Service customers will be automatically enrolled in 100% Green.
  • New England Green: 100% renewable energy, all generated by projects in New England.

The program also offers an option if you do not want 100% renewable energy:

  • Basic: Meets Massachusetts minimum renewable energy requirements. Does not include any additional renewable energy.

Participating in the program

As provided by state law, all Eversource Basic Service customers are automatically enrolled in the Lexington Community Choice program, unless they choose not to participate.

At program launch in July 2017, all existing Eversource Basic Service customers were automatically enrolled into the program unless they chose to opt out. Accounts that already had an agreement with a different electricity supplier were not automatically enrolled. If your Eversource electric bill shows Agera Energy is your electricity supplier, you have been enrolled in the program. 

If you were not automatically enrolled and wish to join the program:

  • Please contact customer support to be added to an enrollment waiting list. Your contact information will be passed along to the new electricity supplier on December 1, and you will receive a call back to confirm your enrollment.

If you have a new Eversource electricity account in Lexington and wish to be enrolled:

  • New Eversource electricity account holders will receive a letter in the mail about the program one to two months after opening the account. You will have 30 days from the mailing date of the letter to opt out of the program before enrollment. If you do not opt out, your account will be automatically enrolled after that 30-day period has completed.

What changes with the program

As a program participant, you will see only two changes on your Eversource electric bill:

  • The program’s electricity supplier will be listed as your electricity supplier. Right now that is Agera Energy. That will change to the new electricity supplier selected by the Town in December.
  • The program price will be used to calculate the Supply portion of your bill.

Nothing else changes. Your primary relationship for electricity will remain with Eversource. This means:

  • You will continue to receive one bill from Eversource
  • You will continue to call Eversource if your power goes out. Eversource will continue to deliver electricity, restore service after an outage, and maintain the poles and wires.
  • If you receive net metering credits on your Eversource bill from solar panels, those will continue to be calculated on the Eversource Basic Service rate, not on the program rate.
  • If you are eligible for a low-income discount, you will continue to receive that discount.

If you do not wish to participate

You may opt out of the program before being automatically enrolled or at any time after enrollment with no penalty. If you choose to opt out, Eversource will continue to be your electricity supplier, and the supplier portion of your electric bill will remain on the Eversource Basic Service rate.