If you recently moved to Rochester, Henrietta or Canandaigua, you should be getting a letter in the mail next week letting you know you’ve got some options when it comes to where you buy your supply of electricity. If you don’t take action, you could end up paying more.

The City of Rochester, the Town of Henrietta and the City of Canandaigua participate in Community Choice Aggregation programs. That means, everyone who lives there buys their electricity from an outside supplier who gets at least 50% of it from renewable sources.

If you’ve lived in those municipalities a while, you know about this and you’ve already made your decision whether to participate or opt-out. But if you’re new, you’re going to have to decide soon.

“For those who just moved into the community, they may receive a letter inviting them to either remain in this renewable energy program or opt out,” said Jessica Stromback, GM of Joule Community Power. “If they choose to opt out, they’ll have three ways to do so, that’ll be by the letter, prepaid stamp, by calling or by going online and updating it.

“Right now, compared to the RG&E rate, it is $7-$10 higher for an average household per month and with that, you’re getting 50-100% renewable electricity depending on what program you’re in,” Stromback said.

News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke asked Stromback about the opt-out vs opt-in structure of the program.

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC: “I think the big thing we always get with programs like this is why is opt-out as opposed to opt-in?”

Jessica Stromback: “Because when a community acts together, you can negotiate much better terms both contractually and rate wises. So any of us acting alone, we just can’t get these deals by ourselves.”

Anyone can opt out of a CCA at any time, not just folks who are new to the community. If you don’t know whether you’re in or out, you’re probably in. So, review your bill carefully and make sure that’s the best choice for you.

Even if you’re in a CCA, RG&E still bills you and delivers the electricity. You’ll look under the supply portion of your bill and it will show Constellation Energy.

Most people might say, it’s a few extra bucks and if it helps the environment, no big deal. But if you’re already struggling to pay your energy bill, every dollar might make a difference. So it’s good to just take a look and think about it.

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