Nearly 14 percent of homes and businesses in Barrington have opted out of the community energy aggregation program.

Patrick Roche, an official with Good Energy, shared an update about the energy program last week. In an email to the Barrington Times, he wrote that officials had mailed opt-out letters to nearly 6,500 energy customers in Barrington, and 884 of them had decided to opt out of the program.

“There is no impact to the program pricing based on these opt-outs,” Roche wrote. Officials said the introductory community aggregation electricity rate will be 9.361 cents per kilowatt hour, while Rhode Island Energy’s rate will be 10.341 cents per kilowatt hour.

“The only impact is that the opt-outs will change the amount of power that the supplier, NextEra, needs to procure for the next pricing period. Even with the opt-outs, Barrington still has plenty of buying power to secure competitive prices, particularly as it is participating in the group with Providence and five other communities.”

There are seven cities and towns involved in this community aggregation program: Barrington, Providence, Newport, Portsmouth, Narragansett, Central Falls and South Kingstown. The municipalities are combining to purchase their electricity. 

In a separate email, Roche wrote that the opt-out rates for the other communities ranged from 7 percent to 17 percent, with an average overall rate of 10 to 11 percent. 

In addition to lower electricity bills (Good Energy officials estimated the average customer will see monthly savings of $5 to $7), customers also ensure that the energy coming from these deals utilizes a greater share of renewable sources.

Barrington resident Mike Holtzman has concerns about the program. Holtzman voiced some of his concerns during a meeting in March that was focused on the program. He also wrote a letter to the editor this week. 

“What I’m concerned about is that the town website of news and announcements lists Barrington electricity aggregation FAQs but the participation information is not shown,” Holtzman wrote. “The sole update I could see linked to the program for its May launch is that the Barrington standard rate handled by Good Energy will be 9.361 cents per kWh and the rate with Rhode Island Energy, the public utility provider, will be 10.341 cents per kWh.”

Holtzman said he would like to see accurate, timely information shared with residents.

“The town’s twice monthly newsletter emailed April 25 has the same information tying back to before the March 23 meeting,” Holtzman wrote. “I was disappointed while attending the meeting that besides a brief introduction by the town administrator no town officials spoke. Good Energy’s (Jamie) Rhodes conducted the two-hour meeting.”