LBD04570-01-5
A. 10567 2
inter-municipal agreement entered into by resolution of two or more
municipal boards aggregating load on a regional basis.
6. "Energy services company" or "ESCO" shall have the same meaning as
such term is used in subdivision 5 of section 44 of the public service
law.
7. "Municipality" or "municipalities" shall mean a city, town or
village located in the state of New York.
8. "Community choice aggregator" or "energy aggregator" shall mean a
municipality authorized pursuant to a local resolution to participate in
an inter-municipal agreement establishing a municipal energy aggregation
program to offer energy services to residential, commercial and munici-
pal customers located within the energy aggregator's jurisdictional
boundaries.
9. "Program administrator" shall mean a community choice aggregator
that is designated pursuant to a local municipal governing board resol-
ution or an inter-municipal agreement, or an employee or a contractor
designated by a community choice aggregator to fulfill the responsibil-
ities of: (i) requesting and compiling historical usage data of distrib-
ution utility customers as required under this act, (ii) submitting a
request for bids for energy supply services from ESCOs authorized to
supply electric and/or gas in New York state, and (iii) carrying out the
administration of the contract and implementation of aggregated
services.
10. "Department" shall mean the New York state department of public
service.
§ 2. Community choice aggregation programs. 1. A municipality may,
after adopting a resolution approved by a majority of its governing
board, participate in a community choice aggregation program through an
inter-municipal agreement with one or more municipalities in order to
coordinate efforts, or through its own community choice aggregation
program to procure electric and/or gas supply services, and municipal
programs to develop energy efficiency and renewable energy installa-
tions, gas efficiency and renewable heating technologies on behalf of
its participating customers.
Such community choice aggregation program must provide for the desig-
nation of a program administrator to facilitate the operations of a
community choice aggregation program, including but not limited to the
receipt of customer historical usage data information from distribution
utilities pursuant to section three of this act and any communications
necessary with potential ESCOs that would provide electric and/or gas
supply services for such program, and otherwise entering into contracts
with other energy efficiency and renewable energy developers, including
gas efficiency and renewable heating technologies, providing power
and/or capacity to the community choice aggregation program.
2. A community choice aggregator shall be responsible for responding
to inquiries regarding the particular community choice aggregation
program in which it is a participant. Such community choice aggregator
shall provide contact information, including but not limited to a mail-
ing address, telephone number, e-mail address and fax number at which it
may be contacted in all notices to participating customers.
3. In establishing a contract for electric and/or gas services with an
ESCO, a program administrator shall comply with article 7 of the public
officers law.
§ 3. Establishment of community choice aggregation program. 1. The
program administrator designated pursuant to an inter-municipal agree-
ment or municipal resolution establishing a community-wide aggregation
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program shall provide a copy of such agreement to the distribution util-
ities and submit a formal request for usage information provided for
under subdivision two of this section.
2. In order to augment energy efficiency and renewable energy
programs, and within 60 days of the establishment of a community choice
aggregation program or of an inter-municipal agreement establishing an
aggregation program and the formal request, distribution utilities
shall, at a reasonable cost as determined by the commission within 120
days of the effective date of this act, provide to the program adminis-
trator the following utility information regarding customers receiving
gas and/or electric supply services from such distribution utilities who
are eligible to receive service from the community choice aggregator:
(a) aggregate monthly usage (kWh) by rate schedule: energy consumption
(kWh) for the most recent 60 months of completed information for each
customer class for a given period of time for each municipality included
in the data request;
(b) customer-specific information from the current billing periods as
well as prior 60 months consisting of the following billing information:
meter number, service agreement number, name on agreement, service
address with zip code, mailing address with zip code, telephone number,
monthly kWh usage, monthly maximum demand where available, Baseline
Zone, low income residential participation (Home Energy Assistance
Program or HEAP), End Use Code (Heat Source), Service Voltage, Medical
Baseline, Meter Cycle, Bill Cycle, Level Payment Plan and other plans,
HP Load and Number of Units, monthly rate schedule for all accounts
within the community choice aggregator's territory;
(c) system wide residential and non-residential load shapes by New
York Load Zones and New York Control Area designations for the most
recent five years for which the distribution utility has completed
information;
(d) standard system average load profiles by rate class also referred
to as Dynamic Load Profiles & Static Load Profiles posted to the
distribution utility's website;
(e) quarterly or monthly aggregated participation data for energy
efficiency programs already tracked in New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority reports, as available;
(f) aggregate monthly usage (kWh) by zip code within a city code;
(g) customer-specific information consisting of: service agreement
number, monthly interval meter data where available, and rate schedule
for all accounts within the community choice aggregator's territory;
(h) number of service agreements in each rate schedule within a munic-
ipal energy aggregation program's territory or proposed territory;
(i) mapping of customer rate schedule to rate class;
(j) estimated annual generation revenues by community choice
aggregator's territory;
(k) estimation of peak coincident and non-coincident demands;
(l) data fitting community choice aggregator's annual usage to New
York Control Area load shapes; estimation of peak coincident and non-
coincident demands;
(m) total annual kWh loads of bundled customers and customers already
receiving ESCO service, firstly on a monthly basis and secondly on a
rate schedule basis within the community choice aggregator's territory;
(n) aggregated residential, small commercial, large commercial and
government annual kWh usage for the past three years in a format by tier
for each rate schedule, and for Time of Use (TOU) rates or other meter-
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specific rates, providing further separation by summer/winter peak,
partial peak, and off peak periods and summer/winter period;
(o) annual proportional share of system benefit charge energy effi-
ciency funds for a community choice aggregator's proposed territory;
(p) system benefit charge customer payment by city code;
(q) all electricity usage data at the most granular interval recorded
by the distribution utility;
(r) all monthly unbundled rate components and charges for each custom-
er;
(s) natural gas consumption and billing data for all customers located
within the territorial boundaries of the community choice aggregator,
similar in extent and specification to what is being requested on the
electricity side (i.e. customer data, consumption data at the most gran-
ular interval available, monthly bills within unbundled charges, and all
data necessary to calculate those charges);
(t) clarification and datasets used to associate gas meters with elec-
tric meters at the building level and customer level;
(u) all energy efficiency program data for all customers (by account
number, service ID number, street address, etc), listing account
contacts and all recorded activity and information, including but not
limited to on-site or online audits, benchmarking, retro-commissioning,
and energy use analyses and efficiency recommendations, and paperwork
filed by customers or contractors, and financing information such as on
bill financing amounts and repayment status, as available, as well as
any associated data sets such as building information on tenant/owner
occupancy, square footage and year built, as well as rebate code and
measure tables, as available;
(v) demand response program participation and all relevant metrics
recorded for these programs;
(w) the type of interconnect agreement and all relevant metrics asso-
ciated with customers that have already interconnected distributed
generation to the distribution utility's distribution grid;
(x) distribution grid data that could impact the siting of distributed
generation or demand-side assets, in a GIS format including shape-files
and any associated datasets;
(y) the number of customers, by class including indication of those
that are currently provided electric and/or gas supply service from an
ESCO, that are not served by a publicly-owned utility;
(z) the aggregate gas and electric usage of eligible customers, by
class served, for the 12-month period preceding the request; the system
peak hour or hours that determines capacity buying requirements, and to
the degree that it is available the aggregated load factor by class
served for the 12-month period preceding the request; and
(aa) to the degree that it is available, reasonable efforts to provide
more detailed historic information relating to energy usage character-
istics of customers, including but not limited to information by rate
class on meter type, the number of smart meters deployed, kWh usage and
peak demand information classification, meter reading cycle information,
load profile designating information, the number of customers enrolled
in budget billing plans, loss factor information, net-metering informa-
tion and any other information deemed useful by the community choice
aggregation program administrator to successfully solicit bids for and
implement the aggregation program.
§ 4. Selection of ESCO providers. 1. Upon receipt of utility bulk
information required under section three of this act, the program admin-
istrator is authorized to advertise for the request of bids from ESCOs
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for the provision of services for a community choice aggregation
program. Any request for bids shall specify that a contract for aggre-
gation program services must:
(a) include price benchmarks, which shall provide for:
(i) monthly per kWh rates for electric supply services for each appli-
cable class of customers that are before the 12-month average monthly
price supply services provided by distribution utilities or lower than
the distribution utility's rate at the time of a request for bids as
provided for in this section, except insofar as customers voluntarily
pay higher rates to pay for and receive ownership benefits from energy
efficiency retrofits and/or renewable distributed generation;
(ii) monthly per Btu rates for gas supply services for each applicable
class of customers that are below the 12-month average monthly price of
supply services provided by distribution utilities or lower than the
distribution utility's rate at the time of a request for bids as
provided for in this section, except insofar as customers voluntarily
pay higher rates to pay for and receive ownership benefits from energy
efficiency retrofits and/or renewable distributed generation;
(b) provide that the ESCO will not levy any form of cancellation
charge to participating customers who, after receiving electric and/or
gas supply services from the ESCO, choose to receive such supply
services from their respective distribution utility;
(c) provide that the community choice aggregator municipal board may
levy a cancellation charge to participating customers only insofar as
such charges cover obligations to repay investment in renewable energy
and energy efficiency installations serving participating customers;
(d) provide for a website for participating customers to view the
monthly rates charged for electric and/or gas supply and any related
renewable energy and/or energy efficiency services and products being
offered by the community choice aggregation program administrator; and
(e) provide that any costs associated with preparation for or imple-
mentation of this program or contract shall be reflected in the bench-
mark per kWh and per Btu bid price.
2. (a) After a review of bids submitted for energy supply services,
community choice aggregator are authorized to select the ESCO or ESCOs
that will offer the best service, price, environmental, greenhouse gas
reductions, and local employment and local business benefits and other
factors considered, provided that the per kWh supply rate for electric-
ity and per Btu rate for gas supply services at the initiation of
service is lower than the distribution utility's average monthly rate
for supply services for the prior 12-month period, or lower than the
distribution utility's rate at the time of a request for bids as
provided for in this section and meet the requirements of subdivision
one of this section, provided that community choice aggregator, may at
their discretion, reject all bids or offers and re-advertise for new
bids or offers in a manner provided by this act.
(b) In making a selection, community choice aggregator shall (i)
select one ESCO for the provision of electric supply services; and (ii)
select one ESCO for the provision of gas supply services, provided
however that the community choice aggregators may select an ESCO to
provide both electric and gas supply service, provided further that
community choice aggregators may not select any ESCO that has been
deemed ineligible to provide energy services by the department.
(c) In making a selection, community choice aggregators may contract
with any number of contractors to design, build, operate, and/or main-
A. 10567 6
tain renewable energy facilities and energy efficiency measures that
provide power or capacity to the community choice aggregation program.
3. After selection of an ESCO or ESCOs, the community choice aggrega-
tors are authorized to set rates and to enter into a contract for supply
services by a local law of the local governing board. Such contract
shall include:
(a) provisions prohibiting the ESCO or ESCOs from denying service to
any customer receiving service from such customer's distribution utility
at the commencement of such contract;
(b) monthly per kWh rates for electric supply services for each appli-
cable class of customers that is below the average monthly rate of
supply services provided by distribution utilities in the previous
12-month period or lower than the distribution utility's rate at the
time of a request for bids as provided for in this section, with
approval of any changes requiring a resolution of the community choice
aggregator's municipal board;
(c) monthly per Btu rates for gas supply services for each applicable
class of customers that is below the average monthly rate of supply
services provided by distribution utilities in the previous 12-month
period or lower than the distribution utility's rate at the time of a
request for bids as provided for in this section with approval of any
changes requiring a resolution of the community choice aggregator's
municipal board;
(d) provisions requiring the ESCO or ESCOs to provide electric and/or
gas supply rates lower than the distribution utility's electric and/or
gas supply rates pursuant to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivision
for the duration of the contract, provided that a violation of this
provision shall subject such ESCO to refund participating customers at
the time of termination of a contract pursuant to section six of this
act, subject to a determination by resolution of the community choice
aggregator's municipal board;
(e) provisions prohibiting a community choice aggregator from opting
out of the contract during the term of such contract;
(f) provisions for the community choice aggregation municipal board to
decide whether to terminate a contract for services if an ESCO fails to
meet the price benchmarks pursuant to this act with the ESCO having
exclusive responsibility for all re-entry fees charged to a participat-
ing customer by distribution utilities for the resumption of supply
services;
(g) provisions indemnifying community choice aggregators from all
liabilities, damages and costs associated with the non-performance of an
ESCO operating under a contract for services;
(h) a requirement that the ESCO provide a performance bond if required
by the community choice aggregator; and
(i) any other requirement that the community choice aggregators deem
necessary for the adequate and reliable supply of electric and/or gas
supply services to participating customers.
§ 5. Notice of community choice aggregation contract required. 1. Upon
the completion of the contract for services provided for under subdivi-
sion three of section four of this act, the program administrator shall
obtain from distribution utilities at a reasonable cost as determined by
the commission within 60 days of the effective date of this act their
lists of customers that may be affected by such contract and provide the
community choice aggregators with such information, including the trans-
fer of all data on each meter for all eligible accounts within the
community choice aggregator jurisdictional boundaries for the past five
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years. The community choice aggregator shall then notify such customers
as to the provisions of such contract, including but not limited to
price benchmarks.
2. Distribution utilities must make all reasonable preparations to
release customers who do not choose to opt-out pursuant to subdivision
three of this section from receiving electric and/or gas supply
services, provided that all customers shall continue to receive delivery
services from such utilities.
3. Upon completion of a contract provided for under subdivision three
of section four of this act, community choice aggregators must mail a
notice to each eligible customer not currently receiving supply services
from a publicly-owned utility, which shall include:
(a) that the customer's municipal board has chosen to participate in a
community choice aggregation contract;
(b) for customers not currently served by an ESCO, that unless such
customer elects to opt-out within 60 days of the postmarked notice, such
opt-out customers will become a participating customer and will receive
electric and/or gas supply services through a community choice aggre-
gation contract;
(c) for customers not currently served by an ESCO, instructions
detailing how a customer may submit an opt-out response, provided that
such procedures shall permit the customer to opt-out at no cost within
60 days by returning a reply mail form to the program administrator, as
determined by the community choice aggregation municipal board;
(d) for customers not currently served by an ESCO, that each customer
who does not elect to opt-out within the prescribed period may elect to
opt-out of such contract at any time, but may be subject to exit fees by
the community choice aggregator municipal board;
(e) for customers already served by an ESCO, that each customer wish-
ing to switch to service with the community choice aggregator may do so
by opting-in to the program within 60 days of the postmarked notice to
become a participating customer and receive electric and/or gas supply
services through the community choice aggregation contract;
(f) for customers already receiving ESCO service that elect to opt-in
to the program, instructions detailing how a customer may submit an
opt-in response, by returning a reply mail form to the program adminis-
trator, as determined by the community choice aggregation municipal
board; and
(g) that in the case of a participating customer the distribution
utility is no longer responsible for supply rates charged to such
customer and that all complaints about supply service under the aggre-
gation contract shall be the responsibility of the program administrator
and ESCO or ESCOs, according to the community choice aggregation
contract.
4. Immediately following the 60-day opt-out period provided for in
paragraph (b) of subdivision three of this section, a community choice
aggregator shall provide the program administrator with the following
information:
(a) the number of customers that received electric and/or gas supply
services from such distribution utility who are participating customers
by rate class; and
(b) the name, address, and account number of each participating
customer.
5. The program administrator, upon receipt of information required
under subdivision four of this section, shall submit such information
and the information provided for under subdivision two of section three
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of this act to the ESCO or ESCOs. Such ESCOs shall commence supply
services to participating customers.
§ 6. Public service commission review. 1. Within 365 days of the
commencement of gas and/or electric supply services under an aggregation
contract, the commission, after consultation with the department shall
commence an audit to ensure such ESCO or ESCOs selected have achieved
benchmarks established pursuant to paragraph (b) of subdivision one of
section four of this act.
2. (a) If the commission determines that the ESCO or ESCOs providing
gas and/or electric gas supply services has failed to achieve such
benchmarks as established in subdivision three of section four of this
act, the contract for services established pursuant to subdivision three
of section four of this act shall be subject to termination by resol-
ution of the community choice aggregator's governing board.
(b) Within 30 days of the termination of a contract for services by
the community choice aggregator's municipal board, the ESCO shall issue
payment to each participating customer for any supply rates above those
specified in the contract, including the cost of any applicable re-entry
fees charged to a customer for resumption of supply services.
(c) The commission shall ensure that all customers eligible for
resumption of electric and/or gas supply service from their respective
distribution utility receive such services regardless of the actual
timing of the payment provided for under paragraph (b) of this subdivi-
sion.
3. An ESCO shall not levy any charge to a community choice aggregator
to cover expenses related to the termination of a contract.
§ 7. Report. Within 30 months of the establishment of a supply
services contract for services or upon the termination of such contract,
the commission shall submit a report to the executive, the temporary
president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chairs of the
senate energy and telecommunications committee and the assembly energy
committee detailing the performance of any aggregation contract. Such
report shall include the following information:
1. the number of participating customers served;
2. the ability of the ESCO or ESCOs selected under an aggregation
program to provide adequate supply services;
3. the actual supply rates charged under a contract for services;
4. the amount, if any, of participating customers whose residential or
non-residential service was disconnected; and
5. any other information the public service commission deems neces-
sary.
§ 8. Energy services company bill of rights applicable to participat-
ing customers. For purposes of this act the term "customer" as defined
in paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section 349-d of the general busi-
ness law, shall include participating customers.
§ 9. This act shall take effect immediately.