Natural gas prices still higher under Brookhaven CCA
Kornreich clashes with Good Energy reps during Town Board meeting
By Samantha Rutt
Members of the Manhattan-based energy firm Good Energy LLC, the Town of Brookhaven’s Community Choice Aggregation administrator, were recently met with questions and criticism from within the Town Board.
The CCA program was designed to help Brookhaven consumers save money on energy by pooling the bulk buying power of Brookhaven residents and businesses.
The CCA’s fixed rate, however, is $0.695 per therm, more than double the August rate offered by National Grid, which is $0.339 per therm.
During a TOB meeting Thursday, Aug. 17, Good Energy’s managing partner Javier Barrios and senior business development manager Edward Carey described the program as a “state initiative that allows municipalities to be empowered.”
The program’s primary aim, Barrios said, is to provide residents with greater control over their energy sources and present a more cost-effective alternative to default utility rates from National Grid, which fluctuate monthly.
Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) scrutinized these appeals, suggesting a lack of public outreach regarding the CCA.
“I have never met anybody who understood what it meant that we were starting a CCA,” Kornreich told Barrios.
The town handled preliminary outreach and education efforts before the program’s launch, according to Barrios, who added that there was a mandatory subsidy outreach and education initiative undertaken to ensure a clear understanding of the CCA program.
“I’ll just say that from where I’m sitting, it was not effective at all,” Kornreich responded. “I think that there’s been a lot of confusion.”
After the initial enrollment of all residents who use natual gas, the program makes residents responsible for opting in or out of the program. For Kornreich, residents must understand how the program works compared to the default energy supply.
“I think that to the extent that people understand it, [the residents] understand that, at the moment, they are overpaying for natural gas,” he added.
Barrios said the weather significantly affects the domestic natural gas market. In the temperate climate of the shoulder months, when the demand for natural gas is lower, Brookhaven residents should unenroll from the CCA’s program, paying only for their independent household’s usage at the market rate.
Kornreich also centered around resident complaints regarding issues with the program’s opt-out feature. Complaints were consistent with long delays, confusion with billing and the feature “simply not working,” he stated during the discourse.
“I would just like to urge [Good Energy] here in this public setting to honor those requests as quickly as possible,” Kornreich continued.
Since the rollout of the CCA in May, all Brookhaven residents have been automatically enrolled in this program. It still remains up to their discretion whether to opt in or out.
“I do support this initiative because I think that having this choice for consumers is going to, at some point, give us the ability to save money,” Kornreich concluded. “But our residents have to be educated, and we’re all trying to figure out how to do a better job.”
