MassLive: Springfield community solar project getting billing help from Eversource
In Massachusetts, customers of community solar projects typically get two bills, one for their energy use and one from the solar project.
Currently, only 1,400 low-income Eversource customers participate in community solar, and the new initiative will increase the numbers, said Isabelle Hazlewood, Eversource’s manager of residential solar programs. The Springfield site has been running for years and currently has a waitlist, but some of the projects in the program elsewhere in the state are new and will bring in new participants.
Eversource proposed the project in 2021 and got state approval for it last year, Hazlewood said.
The state’s Department of Public Utilities is currently investigating using net crediting for community solar on a wide scale.
The solar project, run since 2019 by the nonprofit Citizens Energy Corp., is for low-income residents. About 500 people have opted into the project, and they get a credit on their electricity bill for being part of it. It’s a way for people who do not have space for solar panels at their home or who can’t afford them to still benefit from solar energy savings.
Customers get their electricity bill, which shows a credit discount from the solar project, and then get a secondary bill from Citizens Energy charging them for half the credit, said Tess McKenna, a Citizens Energy program manager.
Participants typically save a few hundred dollars each year, but the billing can be confusing and hard to navigate — especially for low-income people who might have been taken advantage of by energy providers in the past, McKenna said.
“They are very rightfully skeptical of changes to their bill,” she said. State program rules prevent a more streamlined billing, she said.
To help, Eversource is working with 11 solar projects in the state, so that customers will get one bill with their net credit on it.
