Green Power
In today’s deregulated* energy market, customers have two options to support renewable energy, both of which are offered by non-utility energy providers: 1) you may purchase your energy supply from a company that owns the rights to electricity that was generated by renewable fuels (such as wind, small hydro, biomass, solar, etc.) and/or 2) you may purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
Energy Service Companies
The electricity produced by renewable generators is generally sold into the wholesale electricity market, and becomes part of the energy mix purchased by utilities and electric suppliers on behalf of their customers. A complete list of independent electric suppliers, also referred to as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), are available on our Energy Suppliers page.
To find ESCOs that offer Green Power products to Central Hudson customers, visit the NYS Power to Choose site. Upon submitting your search criteria you will be presented with a list of available ESCOs. A check mark in the "Green Offer" column indicates that ESCO offers a green power option.
Or, go to Central Hudson's Green Energy Marketplace and subscribe to a share of a local solar farm.
Renewable Energy Certificates
RECs represent the environmental benefits of electricity produced through renewable resources, and are sold to residential customers, businesses, institutions and municipalities by independent companies to encourage the development of renewable energy. REC purchases provide a way for you to support renewable energy, as they help fund, for example, ongoing operating costs of existing facilities or the construction of new renewable power plants. They may also help developers obtain financing for new renewable energy facilities. Please note that when you purchase RECs, your electric supply is still purchased on the wholesale market by your utility, Central Hudson (or by an independent supplier of your choice), and your utility bill does not change. You will likely receive a separate bill for the RECs from the independent provider. Several municipalities, organizations, and individuals in the Hudson Valley already purchase RECs in order to support renewable energy in our state and nation.
Click here to visit a list of organizations from whom RECs can be purchased.
A growing number of Central Hudson's residential and non-residential customers have received incentives to help them install their own on-site renewable energy generating systems, typically solar-or wind-powered, and so can you. Find out about these Distributed Generation options here.
More information about renewable energy options is also available on the NYS Public Service Commission’s web site at www.AskPSC.com.
*As a result of deregulation, Central Hudson is an energy delivery company only, and we no longer own electric generating facilities (other than our small, local hydroelectric stations, which use renewable energy to provide less than two percent of our customers’ total electric energy needs). Power plants we formerly owned were sold to independent companies that, together with other generators throughout New York (including those using renewable resources), now sell their energy into the wholesale market. It is through this market that Central Hudson purchases electricity on behalf of its customers and we pass our actual cost on to our customers, without ever any markup or profit. Energy purchases in this marketplace, which are dispatched by the New York Independent System Operator (or NYISO), are based on the total demand of all customers, their geographic location, and the current operating status of all available power plants and transmission lines, etc.; it does not identify the fuel source of electricity purchased until some months afterwards. The electricity supplied by this market is a mix produced by all types of generators operating in the region. So, if you purchase your electricity from Central Hudson, a small portion of that electricity does come from renewable sources, but Central Hudson is not able to offer Green products tailored to a customer's specific renewable energy requirements (such as 100% wind generated, or 50% hydroelectric, for example).