Mount Kisco, NY and West Windsor, NJ, October 9, 2020 – Westchester Power, Community Choice Aggregation today announced its partnership with retail energy data management company Enerex for continued momentum on its successful New York State model community energy program to further its emissions reduction and empower communities.
Entering its fifth year, the Westchester Power Community Choice Aggregation, a program of nonprofit Sustainable Westchester, has become a State-leading model for community response to climate change that made a positive impact in the region. Currently, the program services about 115,000 residents and small businesses, which represents almost 1/3 of Westchester County. Westchester Power’s procurement of 100 percent NYS-based renewable energy on behalf of those participants has, in its first four years, mitigated 660,000 metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of taking 142,600 cars off the road.
Working with 27 of its 44-municipal members, this community energy program has helped participating municipalities make significant progress on their own environmental goals. They collectively took the lead in crafting a path to achieving the robust New York State Climate goals. As a high-value goal under the NY DEC Climate Smart Community and NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities certification regimes, participation positions communities for grant funding from those and other programs.
“The creation of Westchester Power, the first Community Choice Aggregation program in NY State, was a huge step in engaging the full power of community to address the challenge of transitioning to renewable energy,” said Dan Welsh, Westchester Power Program Director. “As the program enters its fifth year, its exciting potential as a platform for further innovation and program development is becoming clear.”
Westchester Power has emerged as the New York State recognized model for Community Choice Aggregation in no small part due to the trusted data platform provided by Enerex (formerly known as Powermatrix). The partnership is built on the value placed on data security and the highest customer service standards. An ISO-27001 certified entity, Enerex ensures data security standards govern its internal systems, providing a turnkey process for Westchester Power. Growing with the Westchester Power program, Enerex has created an efficient, integrated, and secure customer experience related to the program’s opt-in, opt-out, and energy supply choice components, seamlessly integrating with Westchester Power’s back office. Local handling of customer service calls (rather than through supplier call centers) is one thing that distinguishes the Sustainable Westchester approach, and the Sparkplug system is critical to this model. The recent addition of a dynamic customer service ticketing module to the Sparkplug retail energy sales platform has enabled increased efficiency and added checks and balances for Westchester Power processes, to the benefit of participating residents.
“The professional and secure environment that the Enerex data management system provides for our operations is an important piece of the successful development of the Westchester Power program,” added Dan Welsh about the Enerex partnership. “It has been critical to our interactions with customers and meeting our compliance requirements. The Enerex team has worked hard to understand and respond to the unique requirements of a Community Choice Aggregation model.”
“Having provided the industry-standard data platform for energy aggregators, brokers and consultants for many years, we are excited to extend this established back-office capability to CCAs through our partnership with Sustainable Westchester’s Westchester Power program,” said Jason Beck, VP of Sales at Enerex. “The ability to support such a substantial decarbonization initiative using our technology is really outstanding and builds on our commitment to unlock the true benefits of energy deregulation.”
The Westchester Power Community Choice Aggregation program’s importance is also measured by the provided opportunity for choice and cost control. Community energy programs afford municipalities control over their energy future. For residents, this fixed-rate program offers a level of cost control over fluctuating energy prices while providing the choice for renewable energy and competitive green energy supply pricing through a vetted, trusted, and proven entity.
The success of Westchester Power has enabled Sustainable Westchester’s broader energy vision to take hold. It has laid the foundation for other innovation and programming that work toward the transition to a clean energy future. Sustainable Westchester offers Community Solar opportunities Countywide which have increased access to renewable energy, the ability to double one’s environmental impact, and provide guaranteed savings on customer’s electricity bills.
Westchester Power makes every resident a partner in the transition to a clean energy economy, and from there, deeper engagement is then possible. Working with energy software developer Logical Buildings and Con Edison Sustainable Westchester introduced the first resident account demand response program in New York this summer – GridRewards. Participating residents can help take the dirtiest ‘peaker’ plants offline while earning money for cutting their consumption during peak demand response events a year.
The ability to realize a clean energy future is built on electrification. Programs related to clean building and home heating & cooling as well as clean transportation are equally essential parts of the Sustainable Westchester portfolio of energy solutions. Innovation related to direct energy supply solutions are in development and lean on the foundation built by Westchester Power. The current COVID-19 health crisis has underscored the need for environmental resiliency and social justice. Sustainable Westchester is placing a high priority on ensuring that broad access to the benefits of participation is designed into its programming.
ABOUT Enerex
Enerex is retail energy’s trusted data platform, providing secure connectivity to the entire value chain: brokers, suppliers, agents, customers, and utilities to drive efficient transactions. Our flagship service, Sparkplug, is the #1 retail energy sales platform in the world, powering over 10% of US commercial and industrial (C&I) transactions. Enerex is the only ISO-27001 certified software provider for CCAs and energy consultants in the US, protecting customer data privacy rights. Along with Sustainable Westchester, we are working to build the “CCA of the Future” to drive further innovation and choice for energy consumers. For more information, contact Nate Richards, Enerex CFO at (713) 936-9301 or press@enerex.com
ABOUT Sustainable Westchester
Sustainable Westchester is a nonprofit consortium of Westchester County local municipalities facilitating effective collaboration resulting in sustainability initiatives and cutting-edge innovation. Our goal is to bring socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable solutes that create resilient, healthy, vibrant, sustainable communities.
Sustainable Westchester’s energy solutions portfolio includes Westchester Power, the first in NYS Community Choice Aggregation program that provides 100% NYS hydropower and fixed electricity supply rates to its customers. Currently, Westchester Power is the default supplier in 27 County municipalities servicing nearly 1/3 of Westchester County households’ customers. To date, the Westchester Power Program has made a significant environmental impact eliminating over 600,000 metric tons of C02. Community Solar and its precursor Solarize Westchester is responsible for driving renewable energy and solar adoption to thousands of Westchester residents and includes a municipal solar integration partnership with NYPA bringing solar benefits to municipalities across the county. HeatSmart, an energy efficiency, clean heating, and cooling solution, provides options for home and commercial buildings through geothermal or air source heat pumps. HeatSmart delivers a valuable solution for all Westchester residents and businesses and, importantly, those in current gas constricted areas. Sustainable Westchester is at the forefront of innovation and is always looking for and developing the next generation of solutions, Sustainable Westchester is working with NYSERDA in the development of direct supply and energy storage and is in development of a Sunshine to EV model for adoption in member municipalities. Sustainable Westchester understands that transportation is a critical component of the energy discussion, and its Clean Transportation Project includes the facilitation of municipal fleet conversion and the infrastructure for charging stations. Included in its focus, Sustainable Westchester facilitates a Zero Waste initiative anchored by app technology for municipal recycling solutions (Recycle Right!). Other areas of focus include land use and complete streets. For more information, contact Maria Genovesi, Director of Marketing, Communications & Outreach at (914) 242-4725 x104 or maria@SustainableWestchester.org or visit sustainablewestchester.org for general information.
