On Friday, May 9, 2026, the Town of Acton announced changes in the default level of the Town’s group electricity buying program, known as the standard tier of Acton Power Choice. The price at this tier is dropping from 16.031¢/kWh to 15.372¢/kWh, and the tier is dropping the additional 45% of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that had been part of this tier in 2023 and 2024. This will continue until the current contract ends in December of 2026. Pricing and renewable energy strategies after that have not been announced, but the factors that led to these changes will continue.
What are RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates)?
RECs represent the renewable energy aspect of electricity production. Energy suppliers in Massachusetts are required to buy a certain (and rising) amount of RECs each year, matching 27% of the electricity they sold in 2025, 30% in 2026, and more in future years. The theory of this requirement is that potential producers of renewable energy will know that the REC market is expanding so they will anticipate that they can get paid more for producing more renewable energy. Towns like Acton that add the purchasing of RECs beyond the required minimum are following the same logic with the goal of encouraging more renewable energy production.
The purpose and function of RECs in New England has changed
As explained in a document about similar changes in Newton:
“Since January, the federal government has dramatically changed the development environment for renewable energy: sunsetting tax credits, cancelling funding programs, blocking permit approvals, and seeking to stop work on existing projects. The effect has been to make it more difficult and more expensive to build new projects, substantially slowing down the expected addition of new renewable energy projects.”
Electricity suppliers have started to become unable to meet their REC requirements. State law allows suppliers to make Alternative Compliance Payments (ACPs) in lieu of REC purchases. Programs (like Acton Power Choice) that purchase voluntary RECs beyond the minimum requirement are not allowed to substitute ACPs for RECs. But because the supply is limited, each extra REC a town has to buy forces the supplier to buy ACPs instead. ACP payments do not go directly to renewable energy producers the way RECs do. Instead, the largest recent use of ACP funds ($125 million) has been to fund the State’s program to reduce electricity bills.
A regulatory change that raised the cost of electricity
The Town’s contract with its supplier for Acton Power Choice, First Point Power, allows them to increase their prices in the middle of the contract if there are regulatory or legislative changes that increase costs. The new “Day Ahead Ancillary Services Initiative” (DASI) required by ISO-NE, the operator of the New England electricity grid, led First Point Power to alert the Town about the need to increase prices in early 2026. The DASI initiative is designed to increase grid reliability by preparing in advance for changes in grid conditions, but it also increases costs for electricity suppliers. At the Select Board’s March 16, 2026 meeting, this memo about options for dealing with the DASI costs was reviewed, and it was agreed by the Board that reducing the voluntary RECs in order to prevent a price increase was a good move to make for the rest of the current contract, which expires in December 2026.
What happens in the next electricity contract?
The details of the next contract are not public yet, but it is already clear that buying New England RECs will continue to be an ineffective way to encourage new renewable energy production, so the default (standard) program will be brought down to the minimum legal REC requirement, which will make the renewable content of the Acton Power Choice standard and basic tiers the same. This leaves unanswered questions:
- What additional means of encouraging more renewable energy generation will be introduced into the program, to supplement or replace the purchase of extra RECs?
- Will these additional means become clear enough quickly enough that the top tier, Acton Power Choice Green, can make a meaningful extra contribution to renewable energy?
- What distinction, if any, will there be between the basic and standard tiers?
Staff will be wrestling with these questions, and they will become matters of discussion at future Select Board meetings.
Jim Snyder-Grant is a former member of the Acton Select Board and active in Energize Acton and the Green Acton Energy Committee.
