Local Power LLC
What is the Idea Behind the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) DER Plan?
To unite lighting heating, mobility and waste management systems into parts of a united system, we undertake an organized and deliberate transition from electricity supply to DERs for all "addressable" sources of carbon: power, heat, transportation, and waste
How Does the Decarbonization Service Work?
The Local DER Plan organizes a form of cooperation through aggregation of energy demand, and the collective purchasing of electricity and gas supply through the passive mechanism of opt-out enrollment. The program that offers any energy users customer an entirely voluntary option to become Share owners and/or Users of DERs: a deliberate facilitation to physically reduce the amount of grid power and natural gas supplied to CCA
customers. Use of DER-connected electric vehicles (EVs) will also physically reduce gasoline and diesel use.
How is this Authorized?
The CCA program is authorized by order of the Governor and Public Services Commission. The DER program is authorized by the City and Town of Ithaca.
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In 2023, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) issued changes to existing rules and created new rules for CCA programs. One of the changes places voluntary DER
Provider processes under the control of local municipalities, rather than under the jurisdiction of the PSC, with which businesses must register in order to serve as DER
Providers in New York. The City and Town of Ithaca defined their CCA programs through a Local Law, codified as Town Code Chapter 135 and City Code 20 (Community Choice Aggregation and Distributed Energy Resources (Energy) Programs), which included a detailed approach by the CCA Administrator to plan DER activities. The Town entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Local Power LLC in 2022 to prepare an implementation plan for the Town to adopt. Inclusive of new changes to PSC rules for CCA in New York, the Town’s steps following
the passage of Local CCA and DER Laws in 2025, were adoption of Local DER Plan, selection of Local Power LLC as the CCA, its selection as DER administrator in the Town, and responsibility for conducting outreach and education in partnership with the municipal governments. for the Local DER Plan, and City and Town approvals of of electricity and gas supply following RFPs submitted by the CCA Administrator, and DER RFP management based on voluntary consent of energy users and building owners.
Why build DERs in the Community Rather than from the Grid?
The Local DER Plan recognizes that the Town’s climate goals depend upon the effective engagement of energy consumers that live and work here. The Plan recognizes obstacles to engagement and seeks collaboration between the Town and the City of Ithaca to
simplify and standardize participation so that all residents and businesses are eligible and
have the opportunity to participate. To be inclusive, the Plan employs both individual investment and cooperative investment. The Plan’s references to “Cooperatives,”
“Shares” and “investments” are descriptive; details about the precise legal forms are
being explored.
How Area Greenhouse Gas Reductions "Physical"?
The Local DER Plan reflects recognition of the limitations of community-wide decarbonization through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECS) that are referred to as “green” or “renewable” centralized grid power and “net metering.” Instead, the Plan follows a self- consumption of energy strategy for DER design that seeks to provide (1) savings to DER users and (2) a return on investment to DER owners, which result from the avoided cost of natural gas, electric grid power and vehicle fuel purchasing, relative to the cost of DER installation, operation, and administration.
How is it Approved?
In 2022, the Town of Ithaca and City of Ithaca adopted similar CCA Local Laws to create a CCA program, define its purpose, articulate a structure, and authorize activities of the City, Town and a CCA Administrator to implement the program. Your municipal government will further define, support, and promote the program implemented by the CCA Administrator, and to cooperate with the DER Administrator in DER ownership opportunities within the Town. This Local DER Plan creates a process for municipal support and oversight of DER activities by the
CCA Administrator. This plan also defines the method of compensation for a CCA
Administrator for DER implementation, the specific figures for which will be determined
by negotiation with a CCA Administrator that is selected to run the program. Based upon the Town of Ithaca’s adopted CCA Local Law, the Local DER Plan specifies
how those DER components not under the standard PSC 2023 template procedure updated under the new PSC rules changes for selecting the CCA Master Implementation Plan will be implemented by the CCA Administrator. The Local CCA Plan further specifies how the Town will provide support for CCA and DER programs to launch and maintain continuing DER development for the duration of the program. As the Local Law specifies, this program is authorized in part by the PSC and in part by your municipalitiy under both its Local Law and
New York State PSC CCA and DER rules and procedures.
More from the Adopted Local DER Plan
An Opportunity to Co-Invest in and Directly Use Local DERs With Neighbors and/or Your Municipality
This is a community-wide voluntary DER investment program. This program will employ standard agreement templates that the DER Administrator will draft for co-investment by different kinds of customers for different kinds of DERs.
The DER Administrator will submit proposed templates to a designated Town representative for a sign-off before they are made available to prospective DER voluntary investors.
Proposed templates will be adapted to customer and DER types to provide a voluntary investment opportunity for any type of electricity or gas customer who has been enrolled in CCA Supply and elects to invest in Shares of DERs. This program does not seek to form a utility and will not seek to build conventional transmission lines.
Transmission/delivery will continue to be the responsibility of New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG). The core decarbonization mission as stated in the Local Law, and implementable through the Local DER Plan, is to decarbonize buildings with interoperable DERs designed for self-consumption, including appliance automation, demand dispatch, nanogrids, microgrids, thermal loops and minidistricts, on and where desired and feasible within properties, and between adjoining properties throughout the Town.
Interoperability is a characteristic of an energy product or system, such as a photovoltaic array, to work with other energy products or systems, such as appliances or an electric vehicle. Self-consumption means producing and consuming electricity in a building or group of buildings, as opposed to net metering or exporting power onto the grid.
It is the purpose of this program to design and install DERs in a manner that significantly reduces DER Users’ demand of greenhouse gas-producing heating and transportation fuels, by providing a majority of Users’ energy needs with onsite DERs.