New York ended community choice aggregation programs statewide, after a finding that customers paid 116 million dollars more than default service

Why New York ended community choice aggregation programs

New York ended community choice aggregation programs statewide, the mechanism that let a town or county pool residential and small business electric accounts and buy power for the group as one customer, instead of each account buying alone from an investor owned utility or supplier. A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Public Service, the agency that oversees utility companies in New York, said all of these programs have ceased operating, with about 237,465 participants enrolled statewide as of December 31, 2024, and only 1 municipal gas aggregation program still active. The New York Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates utility rates, created the whole system in an order dated April 21, 2016, setting up an opt out design, meaning a customer is automatically enrolled unless that customer chooses to leave. In that same order, the Commission said a well designed program could promote innovative energy products and services, support local clean energy goals, and increase the benefits of retail competition for households and small businesses.

What the evaluation found

A Commission order issued in November 2024 found limited customer savings and recurring billing and enrollment problems, and it directed Department of Public Service Staff to formally evaluate whether to improve, restructure or discontinue the programs. An independent evaluation run for the department found that community choice aggregation customers paid about 826.9 million dollars in total charges from 2019 through the third quarter of 2025, against about 710.5 million dollars they would have paid for the equivalent default utility service over the same period, a gap of about 116 million dollars.

Averaged across that whole period, electric community choice customers paid a 16.4% premium over default utility service. In 2024 alone, that premium rose to 39.2%. Gas aggregation customers paid an average 37.5% premium over utility service from 2021 through the third quarter of 2025.

The CCA program has not produced any cost savings, nor any meaningful contributions toward the State's clean energy goals under the CLCPA.

Staff of the New York State Department of Public Service, the regulatory staff whose proposal led the Commission to end the program statewide. Source 2.

Staff recommends that the Commission discontinue the CCA program in New York State.

Staff of the New York State Department of Public Service, the same regulatory staff proposal as the previous quote. Source 2.

The largest program in the state also shut down

Westchester Power, run by the nonprofit Sustainable Westchester, was the largest community choice aggregation program in New York. At its peak the program served about 350,000 residential and small business accounts across 60 municipalities, and the nonprofit says it cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.5 million metric tons in total, the equivalent of removing 35,000 gas powered cars from the road. Sustainable Westchester decided in the fall of 2025 to wind the program down and replaced it with Green My Power, an opt in program letting a customer buy renewable energy certificates directly instead of being enrolled automatically. The nonprofit was authorized to run the program under a separate Public Service Commission order, Case 14 M 0564, Order Granting Petition in Part, issued February 26, 2015. The Westchester Power contract ended November 30, 2025, and a customer who took no action was returned automatically to Con Edison as the default electricity supplier starting with the December 2025 bill, with no paperwork required and no interruption to electricity service.

Authorization outlives the programs

New York authorized community choice aggregation entirely through Public Service Commission orders starting in 2014, never through a state law. The state still lists 158 municipalities as formally enabled to run a program, against 0 currently active, so the legal door has not closed even though every electric program behind it has. Only the 1 municipal gas aggregation program named above continues to operate under that same authorization.