Lebanon is pursuing several energy-related efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint and lower power costs citywide.
One is what’s known as municipal, or community, aggregation. Under that model, city residents and businesses could opt-in to collectively purchase electricity. That would enable them to buy wholesale power at relatively low rates.
Plus, Lebanon could eventually generate power locally from renewable sources, potentially becoming a net exporter to other communities.
The city is calling this project Lebanon Community Power. The final plan would require local and state regulatory approval, working with Liberty Utilities as a partner.
A component of the plan is real-time pricing, where electric rates vary depending on time of use.
Liberty is separately moving forward on a pilot program to install batteries in some homes in the area this fall.
On the generation side, Lebanon is looking to convert methane gas from its landfill to energy. Several other communities in the state already have such systems in place.