Sunapee energy committee to welcome new member, discuss community power updates

Sunapee’s Energy Aggregation Committee was scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. June 24 in the Town Office meeting room at 23 Edgemont Road, where members planned to welcome a new member, choose a vice-chair and move into the town’s community power and solar updates. The agenda put ratepayer issues front and center: if Sunapee’s energy plan advances, residents could see a different electric supply option and the town could shape how future solar projects are handled.

The committee’s work sits inside New Hampshire’s municipal aggregation law, RSA 53-E, which lets towns and counties aggregate electric customers and arrange electric supply and related services. Sunapee’s community power program would be voluntary and offer opt-out, opt-in, opt-up and opt-down choices. The town will launch Community Power only if it can initially offer residential default rates lower than the utility’s default service.

Those choices matter because the program is designed to change how supply is purchased, not who owns the poles and wires. Under the model Sunapee has described, the utility still owns and operates the grid while the community power program is self-funded by participating ratepayers. The Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire works with more than 60 New Hampshire communities and has been part of Sunapee’s planning. Recent committee minutes recorded a change in voting representation to the coalition and discussion of a conflict-of-interest policy.

Solar was the other major piece on the June 24 agenda. Sunapee’s 2026 Town Meeting materials said the town’s zoning ordinance did not previously address solar energy systems, and earlier committee agendas show members reviewing the results of that zoning amendment after Town Meeting. A separate warrant article proposed a solar array and energy-efficiency measures at the Sunapee Wastewater Treatment Facility to reduce electrical costs, protect against rising energy prices and strengthen resilient, locally controlled infrastructure.

The committee’s June 24 agenda also called for organizational updates, approval of the May 27 minutes, member reports, communications and new business before setting the next meeting date.