TOWN OF GENEVA’S COMMUNITY CHOICE PROGRAM
TOWN OF GENEVA COMMUNITY CHOICE PROGRAM – TWO OFFERINGS
Announcement on September 8, 2022
The Town of Geneva is now introducing community choice solar, which automatically offers the benefits of community solar to eligible residents and small businesses in the Town. In addition to guaranteed savings and supporting the development of local renewable energy, community choice solar has no individual contracts, one bill, and no credit check.
In partnership with Joule Community Power, a division of Joule Assets, the Town of Geneva offered opt-in community solar through DRS projects in 2019, which required residents to sign an individual contract and pay two separate bills.
In Summer 2019, the town launched a second offering, community choice electricity supply, that made a fixed-rate for 100% renewable electricity supply the default option for all eligible residents and small businesses. Through Finger Lakes Community Choice (FLCC), in Summer 2021 we renewed our fixed-rate 100% renewable electricity supply contract, with our newly selected New York state registered supplier, Constellation NewEnergy, Inc. If you were eligible for that offering, you would have received a letter in the mail explaining your choices and how to opt-out of the offering if you choose not to participate.
Now, we are launching an exciting new FLCC community solar offering, called community choice solar. Community choice solar provides additional benefits to the existing 100% renewable electricity supply offering. The additional benefits of community choice solar include:
- No individual contracts to sign or additional fees
- Savings from solar credits are directly applied to your NYSEG bill, so there is no second bill to pay
- No credit check
- You can choose to opt-out at any time by phone or online
- As with our 100% renewable electricity supply offering, eligible residents and small businesses are automatically enrolled in community choice solar, unless they choose to opt-out. Eligible residents and small businesses will be notified by a letter on municipal letterhead that they are eligible and details about their choices.
Can I participate in both the electricity supply offering and the community choice solar offering?
The 100% renewable electricity supply offering, with the selected supplier, Constellation NewEnergy, Inc., can be combined with your own solar system, an individual community solar contract (either through the previous Town of Geneva promoted program, or one you found on your own), or this new community choice solar offering. But you CANNOT have multiple forms of solar applied to the same account/meter. For example, a NYSEG account/meter cannot be subscribed to multiple solar farms or have both rooftop solar and community choice solar. If you already have your own solar or community solar, you are ineligible for community choice solar and will not be automatically enrolled.
All eligible residents and small businesses will receive a letter in the mail explaining the specific details of the solar offering and explain how to opt-out if you do not want to participate. If you are already participating in the electricity supply offering and are now eligible for the community choice solar offering, you will also receive this letter.
If eligible for both, you can choose:
- to participate in supply offering and not participate in the solar offering, OR
- to not participate in the supply offering and to participate in the solar offering OR
- to not participate in either OR
- to participate in both
Through Finger Lakes Community Choice, the town can leverage the collective purchasing power of our residents and small businesses to provide both offerings. Renewable electricity supply supports renewable resources currently in operation throughout New York State (predominantly run-of-river hydropower plants), and community choice solar supports the development of new solar projects in our area. These offerings work together to support clean energy locally and statewide, and to provide customers benefits. Residents in our town may be eligible for both, either, or neither offering. Savings are not guaranteed if you participate in both the 100% renewable electricity supply and community choice solar offerings.
Community Choice Solar
The Town of Geneva will be partnering with local solar projects through Finger Lakes Community Choice. If you are eligible, you will receive guaranteed savings on your monthly NYSEG bill by participating in community choice solar. Unless you choose to opt-out, you will be automatically enrolled in one of our selected community solar projects. Each month that you remain enrolled, you will receive a credit (discount) on your NYSEG electric bill. There are no contracts to sign, no additional bills to pay, and no credit checks. Participating in a community solar project simply earns you a monetary credit on your electricity bill; it does not replace your electricity supplier and can be seamlessly combined with the electricity supply offering described above.
Community Outreach and Education
Just like with the electricity supply offering, the Finger Lakes Community Choice team will provide public outreach and education about the community choice solar program. Individual letters will be mailed to eligible residents and small businesses once the solar projects are selected. To learn more, please visit www.fingerlakescommunitychoice.com/events to find upcoming public info sessions.
Questions?
Please contact the Finger Lakes Community Choice Team with any questions about the program or any mailings you receive at (585) 244-0244 or info@fingerlakescommunitychoice.com