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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey July 12, 2022:

One supplier Constellation Energy has informed customers in White Plains they could purchase electricity directly from them, bypassing Con Edison but the cost per kilowatt hour would double from about 7-1/2 cents a kilowatt hour to 15 cents a kilowatt hour, a possibility that will start to come true in two weeks.

The only way to control your bill is by conserving electricity, since your new Con Edison will be based on usage

As of 12 days ago, Sustainable Westchester (Westchester Power) turned over its customers participating in it six year energy cooperative of 28 towns and cities to Con Edison which will supply the electricity to them until the Sustainable management can obtain competitive green energy and traditional fossil and natural gas electricity. Con Edison will in addition charge for delivery as it does under the present Sustainable contract.

The first billings from Con Edison to Sustainable clients will be coming out approximately the first of August at the height of the electric demand year, aggravated by the consistent mid-80s and 90s weather.

In the spring Sustainable Westchester announced it could not obtain competitive rates due the raising of electricity prices across the board of its roster of suppliers. The non-profit said it hoped to negotiate competitive green energy rates (using solar, wind and water as power sources) and traditionally manufactured electricity after high energy costs declined.

One supplier Constellation Energy has informed customers in White Plains they could purchase electricity directly from them, bypassing Con Edison but the cost per kilowatt hour would double from about 7-1/2 cents a kilowatt hour to 15 cents a kilowatt hour.

To date no public leader or official, including the administration of White Plains has commented on this shift which will cost Westchester consumers in a Sustainable Westchester community plenty.

The independent energy community of ESCOs as they are known have indicated that increased energy costs for oil, natural gas as well as green sources has caused by what appears to be a unilaterally similar array of rates far beyond what Sustainable Westchester has been able to provide as rates in the past at a fixed rate over the course of two years. Sustainable Westchester has supplied the clean energy and fossil fuel reduced rates through its 27 community consortium of pooled buying power.

If the customer chooses to switch permanently to Con Edison for their electric power, they may not rejoin Sustainable Westchester.

In order to retain the right to Sustainable Westchester rates after the power provider obtains an attractive set of new rates to offer members in the consortium of 28 towns, they must stay in the cooperative.

For the last six months Con Edision has in a promotion aimed at Sustainable Customers, “green Rates” through Con Edison, with a fixed rate of $10.40 for the first month and can flucuate monthly based on energy supply.

The direct marketing promotions of Con Ed made no mention of the impending Sustainable Westchester ‘pause”.

WPCNR has made calls to Sustainable Westchester for a statement and comment on the details on how high the new charges Sustainable was presented with that effectively priced Sustainable out of the ability to obtain discounts even with the largest cities and towns of Westchester, including White Plains, pooling their energy buying power.

WPCNR was interested in the percent of energy price offerings increases to Sustainable Westchester and whether the “high range” was essentially parallel.

Those calls were not responded to. I asked if the price increases Sustainable faced could be construed as a joint, but certainly unintentional effort to make the Sustainable Westchester model of consortium buying unable to work.

No calls were received back from Sustainable Westchester

This week Sustainable announced the following changes as the company resolutely moves ahead to obtain energy savings for its customers

Sustainable Westchester Announces New Staff Members

Sherrisse-Lee Lewis, Director of Operations

Sherrisse-Lee Lewis joins Sustainable Westchester as the Director of Operations. She comes with over 15 years in leading non-profit business operations. Sherrisse takes pride in driving business process improvement, building team culture, and executing projects and strategic plans. Before Sustainable Westchester, Sherrisse led business operations at various non-profit start-ups and established foundations and cultural institutions throughout NYC. Most recently, Sherrisse was awarded the 2021 Office Ninjas All-Star award which is a global search for the most creative and strategic-minded operations professionals.“I am joining the team during an exciting time of change and growth. I look forward to what the future brings with the SW team and can’t wait to look back and smile at all we will continue to accomplish.”Sherrisse is a resident of Westchester’s North Salem community. When she is not working, she enjoys traveling, spending time with her children, family and friends.

Jessica Meister, Customer Support Manager

Jessica joined the team as Customer Support Manager in the Marketing and Outreach department for Sustainable Westchester in October 2021. She supports the department in various marketing and outreach avenues including developing outreach initiatives, customer support strategies, and customer database management. Prior to joining Sustainable Westchester, Jessica had been in the publishing industry for 12 years in production, audience development, and circulation and database management. She has previously worked for newspapers in central New Jersey and also a B2B boutique custom magazine publisher based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Most recently she served for 7 years as a high-level account manager at Air Business Subscriptions, an international subscription fulfillment bureau based in West Sussex, UK, and New York City, that serves global magazine publishers with bespoke end-to-end data management, reporting, and customer service functions. She aims to bring her years of experience in this field to the nonprofit environmental sector to help make an impact on the organization’s reach. “I am happy to be part of this team and to work on streamlining our internal processes as well as the customer experience. We are building more efficient systems and processes to increase customer acquisition and retention, in tandem with building our network of partner organizations that serve the county.” Jessica is from Mercer County, New Jersey, and has been a resident of Peekskill since 2014.

Nick Tedrow, Operations Manager, Westchester Power Program

Nick Tedrow joined Sustainable Westchester as the Operations Manager for the Westchester Power Program in September 2021. In this role he maintains the systems and processes that have made the Westchester Power Program a success, while also contributing to the evolution of the organization’s work.“I am excited to collaborate on ideas and efforts that will further streamline and improve on the existing foundation that Westchester Power stands.”Before joining Sustainable Westchester, Nick spent 5.5 years at an equity-focused non-profit Solar PV installation company called GRID Alternatives. While there, he managed the administration of multi-million dollar state-wide incentive programs targeted at disadvantaged communities in California, among various other hats he wore. These services delivered no-cost Solar PV systems, green job training opportunities, and other energy-related technologies and financial savings to residents of the state who are most impacted by the financial and health effects of our climate crisis.Born and raised in Northern California where he went to school and worked all of his life, Nick moved with his family to Westchester County in the summer of 2021. His pursuit of a new role with an organization that shares common values with his own led him to Sustainable Westchester, where he was fortunate to find an opening that fit his background and be chosen for that position. He is excited to be putting down new roots in Ossining and hopes to bring impactful and equitable climate solutions for all the residents of his new home in Westchester County.

Please join us in congratulating and welcoming Sherrisse-Lee, Jessica, and Nick!

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