Council Supports Arrigo’s Electricity Aggregation Program

The City Council expressed its support at its meeting Monday for Mayor Brian Arrigo’s proposal to establish a municipal electricity aggregation program.

In an impressive debut at the Council speaking podium, Gianni Hill, aide to Mayor Arrigo, outlined the program.

“Our office has received an influx of calls and emails from residents recently asking us to look into establishing our own aggregation program,” Hill informed the Council. “There are currently over 170 municipalities that have aggregation programs in place. We should be one of them, too. It’s great to have competition. It keeps rates affordable for our residents and that’s the goal here.”

Hill said the Revere proposal came about “with the recent announcement by National Grid of a pretty steep rate increase going from around 11.5 cents per kilowatt hour to 33 cents per kilowatt hours, effective Nov. 1.”

Hill said while the program won’t be established immediately, “the time is now to get it off the ground.”

Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri said he was excited to hear that Revere residents will have options in the new program. “I commend the Mayor’s office for doing this, and I will be supporting it,” said Silvestri.

Ward 6 Councillor Richard Serino also commended the program, stating that his constituents had called him about it, ‘so I called the Mayor’s office, and Gianni was already working on it – I’m thrilled that it’s before us, and I’m happy to support it.”

Councillor-at-Large Dan Rizzo asked Hill if there were an assistance program for residents who might be having difficulties in paying for home heating oil.

Hill said one resource that the Mayor’s office refers residents to is CAPIC, which serves Revere, Chelsea, and Winthrop. Hill added regrettably that a lot of oil suppliers in the region are dropping their fuel assistance programs “due to the rising costs.”

“I know it’s an obstacle that we’re looking into,” said Hill. “The Mayor’s office is working with Consumer Affairs and some other departments to put together some information sessions to learn about some cost-saving measures they can take.” Thanks to a well-received proposal from  Mayor Arrigo and a well-articulated presentation by Hill, the Council wasted no unanimously approved the establishing of the municipal electricity aggregation program