Westchester Power program goes dark

Conflicting explanations for opt-out energy initiative’s sudden demise 

By JEFF MORRIS

The Westchester Power program of Sustainable Westchester is no more. The reasons for that are in dispute.

According to Sustainable Westchester, it “made the difficult but necessary decision to discontinue the program when the current contract concludes at the end of November. This decision comes as New York implements new rules that govern community energy programs statewide, which impact all Community Choice Aggregation administrators and their energy suppliers. Sustainable Westchester determined that continuing the program under the current regulatory framework is not feasible.”

But according to a spokesman for the state Department of Public Service, which regulates such programs and is the parent of the Public Service Commission, “There were no new rules adopted in 2025 that impacted Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) programs. The Commission adopted enhancements to the CCA program’s outreach and education programs in November 2024.” 

The spokesman continued, “The Commission’s November 2024 order adopted enhancements to increase community awareness and community engagement, lengthen the outreach and education period, increasing the minimum number of outreach and education actions necessary, clarifying the rules around the exchange of CCA-related data, and ensure municipalities acknowledge their legal and program requirements.”

The PSC cited “numerous deficiencies” in recent Westchester Power municipal filings “to the core outreach and education requirements, many of which have been in place for several years before the November 2024 action.” It said that because CCA is an opt-out program, “outreach and education is the most crucial step to a successful CCA program.”

Program Director Dan Welsh, who is a Lewisboro Town Board member, contends, “It is not true that there was a deficit of outreach, and none of the mistakes were of such a substantive nature that customers would not have adequate information to make an informed choice.”

“In fact, we did huge amounts of outreach, over six months from May until just recently,” said Welsh, adding, “It’s all on the website.” He said it also should be noted that “the program has been running for almost a decade and the majority of new contract mailings would have been to existing customers.” He pointed to multiple instances where minor typos and omissions were cited as deficiencies, and given as reasons for rejecting municipal agreements.

“The DPS staff who are our counterparts were doing their jobs,” Welsh said. “They were instructed to require all elements set out in the rules be fulfilled, and that they had no discretion in that.” 

However, he added, the result has been that “the platform that we built up together with the municipalities has been decommissioned and the contracts that we secured through competitive auctions have been cancelled. The rates that were to go into effect, better than other renewable energy offerings from private suppliers, are now not available to consumers.”

Follow-up questions to DPS, including whether any other CCAs were found to have the same deficiencies as Westchester Power, or if it is the first CCA in the state to shut down, were not answered by press time.

Bid to overturn decision

Assemblyperson Chris Burdick told The Recorder that, as one of the founders of Sustainable Westchester, “I am disappointed that the Public Service Commission has initiated steps that both would adversely impact electricity ratepayers throughout Westchester County and take away a powerful tool to promote the fossil-free production of electricity. I will be working with Sustainable Westchester and my colleagues in the Legislature to avert such an outcome.”

Westchester Power was initiated by Sustainable Westchester, Inc., a consortium of municipalities in the county, in 2015, with the intention of controlling costs and increasing the use of renewable energy. It was the first Community Choice Aggregation program in the state; as of May 2016, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, more than 110,000 households and small businesses were receiving their electricity supply through Westchester Power, which at that point consisted of 25 municipalities. NYSERDA said nearly all participating municipalities had set the 100 percent renewable energy supply option as their default option for residents and small businesses, and the rates they were paying for this green option were lower than their default rates had been prior to joining the CCA. 

According to a 2019 NYSERDA fact sheet, more than 5 million customers nationwide were being served by Community Choice Aggregation programs in seven states: New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey and Rhode Island. 

The program was set up by the state so that residents were automatically “opted in,” with the ability to opt out. The state imposed requirements on CCAs regarding the bidding process and notifications to customers.

Bumps along the road

The program ran as planned for the first few years. As of January 2021, Westchester Power had grown to 28 communities, accounting for 115,000 Westchester electric customers, or one third of county residents, with customers divided between NYSEG and Con Ed territories. But later that year, the concept of an energy-buying consortium relying on a fixed-price contract hit a bump in the road, as wild energy price spikes caused Westchester Power to pause its program and restart the bidding process in both NYSEG and Con Ed territories until 2022. Energy markets then continued to fluctuate, driven by forces including the war in Ukraine, and it became increasingly difficult to maintain a long-term contract price advantage over the default utility supplies, with the CCA price often comparing unfavorably with that charged by the standard Con Ed or NYSEG supply.

In Lewisboro, things came to a head in 2024, when a divided Town Board voted to withdraw from the consortium entirely, citing higher prices being paid by residents, who, it was claimed, were unaware that they could withdraw from the program. (Welsh abstained from these discussions.) 

Town board member Richard Sklarin, who led the opposition to the program, posted on social media this week, “Tellingly, no one has made the argument that SW could effectively and competitively deliver truly renewable energy in New York without getting municipalities to sign contracts which made their residents SW customers without their prior knowledge and consent.”

He did not mention that the opt-out model was a state requirement, with the authorization issued by the PSC on April 21, 2016, referring to it as the Community Choice Aggregation Opt-Out Program.

On its website, Sustainable Westchester said it is “grateful for the strong partnership of municipal leaders who have supported the program, and we join them in celebrating Westchester’s Power’s enormous contributions to regional climate and clean energy goals.  In total, the program has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.5 million metric tons, the equivalent of removing 35,000 gas-powered cars from the road, an extraordinary and lasting achievement.”