FAQ

Portsmouth Community Electricity is our city’s electricity supply program designed to provide residents and businesses competitive prices and options for renewable energy. This program was launched in May 2023 along with six other Rhode Island communities. When the program launched, eligible electricity customers received a Notification Letter which provided a 30-day consideration period. Following State law, any customer that did not affirmatively opt-out by the end of the consideration period was enrolled in the program.

The Program periodically sends Notification Letters to new electricity customers in Portsmouth, to give them the chance to participate. The Notification Letter provides a 30-day consideration period, and any customer that does not affirmatively opt-out by the end of the consideration period will be enrolled in the program.

No. Participation is voluntary. If you receive a Notification Letter, you will have until the date on their letter to opt out of the program without being enrolled. If you are enrolled in the Program, you may opt-out at any time, without penalty. To opt out, you can either call the supplier NextEra Energy Services Rhode Island, LLC at (888) 387-1084 or use the opt-out form here.

Residents enrolled in the program will see their supplier listed as “Town of Portsmouth c/o NextEra” on the second page of their RIEnergy bill. See the bill excerpt below for where to look on your bill to find your supply details:

The Program is currently structured to change prices every six months for residential and commercial customers, similar to RI Energy’s Last Resort Service. Prices for Industrial customers change every three months. Roughly a month prior to any price change, there will be an announcement from the Program and the city. You are able to opt-out of the program at any time.

The current pricing for all products will always be available on the Program website: Electricity.PortsmouthRI.com. The chart on the homepage features residential pricing, pricing for commercial or industrial accounts you can find that on the Products and Pricing page.

A goal of Portsmouth Community Electricity is to provide a cost competitive supply products compared to RI Energy’s Last Resort Service. While the residential price has been lower in every period so far, savings compared to the utility rate cannot be guaranteed in every pricing period going forward. Remember, if you are dissatisfied with Portsmouth Community Electricity’s performance, you may always opt out at any time, without penalty.

State law that enables these programs allows for automatic enrollment, subject to a 30-day consideration period, in order to give municipalities enough buying power to negotiate favorable rates for the community.

Anyone that has proactively chosen their own electricity supplier will not receive a Notification Letter or be automatically enrolled in the program.

Yes. You can opt-in to the program by calling the supplier at (888) 387-1084 or using the enrollment form here. Please note, if you already have a non-utility supplier, that supplier may assess a cancellation fee if you choose to switch to the city’s program prior to that contract running its course.

There are two parts to a Rhode Island Energy electricity bill – (1) Supply Services and (2) Delivery Services. Enrolling in Portsmouth Community Electricity only change the Supply Services part. Rhode Island Energy will continue to provide all Delivery Services, which includes responding to power outages and billing services.

No, there will still only be one electricity bill per month, sent by Rhode Island Energy.

Customers in the Low-Income Rate Class (A60) or those on budget billing will continue to receive their existing benefits. Customers enrolled in an Arrearage Management Plan (“AMP”) Program must finish their AMP to participate in the program.

Customers that receive solar electricity benefits from net metering credits and/or Renewable Energy Growth program payments will continue to receive those benefits.

Good Energy is the city’s consultant. They have been retained to coordinate the work of the different municipalities engaged in the same program and to implement the program on behalf of the city. NextEra (specifically, NextEra Energy Services RI, LLC) is the supplier with whom the city has a contract to supply the electricity needed for the program.

Ancillary services are support functions that keep the electric grid stable and reliable, including real-time balancing of supply and demand, maintaining system frequency, and ensuring adequate reserves and voltage support are available to respond to unexpected disruptions. These services are managed by the regional grid operator, ISO-New England.  Ancillary services are one of the components of retail electricity that all electricity suppliers in New England must purchase for their end-consumers.  Other components include energy and capacity.

Historically, ISO-New England set ancillary costs for six months at a time via an auction. In an effort to improve reliability, ISO-New England changed to procure those services day-ahead; it also added new market layers and reserve requirements both for firm resources to cover any known gaps and flexible resources to cover any unplanned outages. Collectively, these changes are known as the Day-Ahead Ancillary Services Initiative, or DASI. It was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in February 2024 and was implemented in March 2025. 

Yes, but not nearly to the magnitude we have seen. As part of preparations for DASI, ISO-New England published a ‘backcast’ for what DASI would likely have cost based on 2019-2021 data. Suppliers generally used this as the key input to their own estimates of expected cost under the new initiative. Unfortunately, the backcast prices have been woefully low compared to actual costs. In a typical month, DASI prices have ranged from two to eight times estimates, averaging over six times estimates though fall of 2025. The ISO’s own Internal Market Monitor reports that from March 2025 through January 2026, DASI has resulted in $921 million in additional cost throughout the region, compared to its original projection of $140 million. This is roughly 9% of the cost of the entire energy and ancillary services market.

As actual costs have come in throughout the past year, suppliers have recalibrated their expectations and price estimates. At the end of January 2026, however, Winter Form Fern stressed the New England grid dramatically, and sent DASI prices into unseen territory: roughly 18 times estimates in some areas. This has shifted market expectations of DASI pricing even higher than before. 

No. DASI is a systemwide market shift affecting all suppliers in New England, not a single-supplier issue. In many cases, even customers with long-term fixed-price contracts are finding their supplier invoking a price increase because of how dramatic the DASI impact has been. In a March 2026 letter to the grid operator, the Governor of New Hampshire captured the widespread frustration saying, “the unprecedented cost increases… are imposing substantial and unanticipated burdens on electricity consumers across New England” and called for reforms. 

While most electricity suppliers bear the DASI costs immediately, the current DASI costs are not yet fully reflected in RI Energy Last Resort Service. 

Last Resort Service procures most of its power through auctions for quantities of fixed-price power, but it purchases 15% of its load on the spot market. Over- or under- collection from that 15% are recouped via the utility’s LRS Adjustment Factor which has a built-in lag: the Adjustment Factor is set based on the previous year’s revenue. For example, the current 2026 LRS Adjustment Factor (included in LRS pricing starting April 2026), incorporates any under-collection from calendar year 2025. But because Winter Storm Fern occurred in 2026, its impact, and any other under-collection, will not be incorporated into the LRS Adjustment Factor until April 2027. 

Additionally, the DASI impacts of Winter Storm Fern could drive bidders for future fixed-price auctions to include higher prices to cover their potential risk. These auctions purchase power for roughly 85% of each Last Resort Service’s load.

Yes. ISO-New England has recognized the shortcomings of the implementation, and has proposed reforms to the DASI market. They plan to discuss the reforms with stakeholders in April, with the hope of filing a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission later this year.

1. ISO New England. DASI Key Project. https://www.iso-ne.com/committees/key-projects/implemented/day-ahead-ancillary-services-initiative 

This is ISO-New England’s overview of the DASI project. 

2. State of New Hampshire. (2026, March 18). Governor calls for millions in savings at ISO New England. https://www.governor.nh.gov/news/governor-calls-millions-savings-iso-new-england

This is a press release announcing the governor’s call for reforms at ISO New England to reduce operational costs to bring down electricity costs and protect ratepayers. It also contains Governor Ayotte’s letter to the ISO New England Board of Directors.

3. ISO New England. (2026, March 19). ISO-NE assessing changes to day-ahead ancillary services market. ISO Newswire. https://isonewswire.com/2026/03/19/iso-ne-assessing-changes-to-day-ahead-ancillary-services-market/

This is a blogpost that discusses planned changes to the DASI market to improve efficiency and reliability in the region’s electricity system. It also houses the report containing recommendations from Internal Market Monitor (IMM) to ISO New England. 

4. Kilowatt Logic. (2026, March 18). ISO-NE DASI costs hit $921 million — 6.6× over estimate as NH governor demands reforms. https://kilowattlogic.com/news/iso-ne-dasi-921-million-cost-overrun-nh-governor-reform-2026 

This article provides a detailed overview of the DASI program’s costs, showing they have exceeded the original estimates by 6.6 times.