Barnegat Pulls Plug on Electric Aggregation Plans

BARNEGAT --- The township committee has decided not to move forward with becoming an aggregator for electricity, said Mayor Al Cirulli at Monday’s committee meeting.

“We believe government shouldn’t dictate who people get their electricity from,” he said. The mayor added he and the committee came to their decision after seeking the public’s input following a presentation given by Colonial Power Group and Birdsall Services Group at last month’s meeting.

Colonial is an energy consulting group that specializes in creating and managing Community Choice Aggregators (CCA) with municipalities.

At that meeting, Mark Cappadona of Colonial explained to the council and audience that the township and its residents could see a 10% or more reduction in their usage rate over what they now pay to Atlantic Electric.

The savings would come from buying electricity in bulk and passing the savings on to residents and the township, he said.

However, the community aggregation procedure is strictly regulated by the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU). One of the regulations requires that all municipal households not currently using another aggregator would have to be automatically enrolled in the program.

Residents would then have the option of “opting out” of the program once it was in place.

Cirulli said he would ask Colonial if it were possible for just the township to enroll in the aggregation plan for its power needs and then allow residents to choose to “opt-in” to the plan.

Following the meeting, Township Attorney Jerry Dasti said due to the BPU’s opt-in regulation concerning the formation of CCAs the possibility of just the township enrolling was not likely. For now, it is a “dead deal,” he said.