New Bedford Community Electricity Aggregation (CEA)

New Bedford CEA is a program offered by the city of New Bedford to provide new electricity supply options and more renewable energy to New Bedford residents and businesses. The delivery of electricity and billing for use is still completed through Eversource, so customers continue to receive one bill from the utility.

New Bedford CEA is part of New Bedford Energy Now (NBEN), the City’s local resource providing education and guidance for energy efficiency and other energy needs to each New Bedford resident and business.

Electricity Options

In addition to the standard electricity supply product, the Program also offers an option with 100% total energy from renewable energy certificates. You can sign up for either option, return to the default or leave the program at any time. You can also check the sample bill in the Resources section for an illustration of a simple way to tell if you a part of the CEA program.


Standard Product (community default)	Plus	Eversource Basic Service
15.784 ¢/kWh All Rate Classes	17.372 ¢/kWh All Rate Classes	17.216 ¢/kWh Residential
No additional renewable energy	Adds voluntary renewable energy (MA Class I RECs) to total 100%	No additional renewable energy
December 2023 through November 2025		January 2024 through July 2024

New Bedford Community Aggregation Program rates until November 2025

Please note: Prices for all products in the program include a 0.1 ¢/kWh administration fee. Program prices apply only to the electricity supply portion of your electric bill. Delivery charges on your electric bill are not affected by the program.

For new industrial customers and for those customers who have previously opted out of the program, the program’s supplier may offer a market rate.

RECs are the accepted legal instrument used to track renewable energy generation and to substantiate claims of renewable energy use.

For Commercial and Industrial Eversource Basic Service Rates please check out the Eversource supply rates page.

*Disclaimer: A goal of the CEA program is to produce savings for customers, but savings cannot be guaranteed compared to the utility’s Basic Service rate which changes every three months for industrial customers and every six months for residential and small commercial customers. The aggregation program seeks to provide price stability and average savings over the full term of the program, but because future Basic Service rates are not known, there is no guarantee of savings

Enroll or change option

If you’re already participating in the Community Electricity Aggregation program, you can also use this form to change products.

If you are not participating in the Community Electricity Aggregation program, you can use this online form to enroll in one of the Community Electricity Aggregation options. Full enrollment in your chosen product is pending, based on the utility’s acceptance of your submission. If accepted, your program rate will be reflected in the Supply section of your utility bill in one to two billing cycles.

If you are currently a customer of a competitive supplier, you may be subject to penalties or early termination fees from your supplier if you switch from the competitive supplier to the Program during the term of your contract. There is no charge for leaving Basic Service, however, Industrial customers leaving fixed-price Basic Service may receive a billing adjustment that may be a credit or a charge.

Be sure to use the name and address associated with the account!

Renewable Energy in the Community Electricity Aggregation program

The CEA program’s additional renewable energy, above and beyond state minimum requirements. All of this additional renewable energy qualifies for Massachusetts Class I (MA Class I) designation. MA Class I projects are located in New England, New York or Eastern Canada. The sources allowed under the designation are varied, but mostly include wind, solar, small scale hydro, and digester gas.

The Plus option is a good choice for those who want to combat climate change and reduce their fossil fuel emissions. It creates more demand for electricity from renewable sources, which in turn, incentivizes the development of new projects.

Helping to Build Renewable Energy Resources

Massachusetts requires all electricity suppliers to include a minimum amount of MA Class I Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that increases annually. This policy, called the Renewable Portfolio Standard, provides growing demand for renewable energy, which incentivizes new renewable generation facilities to be built. All of the additional RECs in your program come from MA Class I resources that are part of our ISO-New England electricity grid. This means the renewable energy resources are located in New England, or the energy is imported as allowed by ISO-New England from locations such as New York or eastern Canada.

How big is our impact?

All 25 of the municipalities participating in the MASS CEA buying group, of which your community is one, offer a 100% renewable energy as an optional product. If just four percent of residential households opt up to the 100% renewable Plus product, it would result in extra demand equivalent to more than 10 typical onshore wind turbines (1.5 MW each).

Those 10 wind turbines could power over 6,000 homes with clean energy and could displace over 45,000 MWh with clean electricity, avoiding:

29 million pounds of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking over 2,800 vehicles off the road for one year
3,600 pounds of sulfur dioxide
6,750 pounds of nitrous oxide

Calculations based on ISO-New England emissions factors for 2017.

Support and information

If you have questions about your participation, contact the electricity supplier, Constellation at (833) 461-0813, or by email at vst@constellation.com. For general program questions you can reach Good Energy, the consultant that manages the Program, by submitting an inquiry or comment by completing the Contact Us form.

Use our bill calculator to compare the monthly costs of New Bedford CEA and Utility’s Basic Service.

How to Leave the Program

If you do not wish to participate in the CEA program, you may submit the opt-out form below or contact the current program supplier, Constellation at (833) 461-0813.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Name

First

Last

Phone

Account type

Residential
Business

Your ELECTRIC utility

Eversource
National Grid

Service Address

Address Line 1

Address Line 2

City

State

Zip Code

Yes, I want to opt out of the aggregation program

Why are you leaving the program? (select all that apply)

To get a better price
To get a different term length
Other (please explain):

Message

Compare rates for the New Bedford CEA program with Eversource

Disclaimer: A goal of the CEA program is to produce savings for customers, but savings cannot be guaranteed compared to the utility’s Basic Service rate which changes every three months for industrial customers and every six months for residential and small commercial customers. The aggregation program seeks to provide price stability and average savings over the full term of the program, but because future Basic Service rates are not known, there is no guarantee of savings.