A low-income solar program could save income-eligible Revere Power Choice users roughly $800,000 annually on their electric bills, according to Planning and Community Development Director Tom Skwierawski.
The Department of Public Utilities recently started allowing municipalities to deliver community solar savings through aggregation programs, the director wrote in a letter to the city council.
This program is new and no community has implemented it yet. Several communities are actively working on it, including Salem, Cambridge, and Lexington.
“The programs are based on a contract between the municipality and a solar developer,” Skwierawski stated. “The solar developer builds the project and agrees to provide funding for the aggregation program. That funding comes from a portion of the incentive the developer receives from the state solar program.”
The municipality agrees to arrange for the funding to go to low-income customers in the aggregation program. This is typically done through a discount on the electricity price, according to Skwierawski.
“New Bedford-based Parallel Products is a solar developer with three projects that it would like to make available for a municipal aggregation program,” he stated. “The projects are ready for construction. However, construction can’t begin until the developer has an arrangement with a municipality.”
Revere was connected through Mass Power Choice, the service provider for Revere Power Choice, the city’s municipal aggregation program, and would like to partner with Parallel Products to bring energy savings to low-income ratepayers in Revere.
“The attached agreement would establish a 20-year relationship with Parallel Products to provide energy savings to low-income households that participate in our municipal aggregation program,” Skwierawski stated. “The agreement would remain in effect as long as Revere is a municipal aggregation community and would extinguish were we to decide not to be a municipal aggregation community.”
If signed, this agreement would save income-eligible Revere Power Choice users roughly $800,000 annually on their electric bills, according to the planning director.
This savings would be on top of the over $600,000 (as of December 2025) that Revere Power Choice saved ratepayers since program launch in July of 2025, he added.
“Given that the agreement is over three years in duration, it must go to the City Council for review,” Skwierawski said. “This agreement was approved by MA DOER for the Smart 2.0 and has been reviewed by our City Solicitor as well as MassPower Choice.”