How to Sign up for Renewable Energy in Long Island if your Utility Company is PSEG

Steps:

1. Know your options: PSEG offers two companies that are provide wind or solar electricity. They are:

• Community Energy
• Sterling Planet

2. Look at the available plans for each company by clicking on the links above to view each company’s plans or by using the cheat sheet (last updated July 5, 2023) for green plans below:

Wind and solar plans for Long Island, from lowest kWh pricing to highest kWh pricing

3. To compare annual and monthly costs, the steps are below — just a little simple math.

• Identify your annual kWh usage by going to page one of your PSEG bill. Under “Your Energy Usage,” you’ll see each month’s average kWh usage per day. Multiply the average kWh usage per day for each month by the number of days in that month to give you your kWh usage per month. Add up your kWh usage per month to get your annual kWh usage.
• Identify your current kWh (kilowatt-hour) unit price by going to page two of your PSEG bill. Under “Power Supply Charges,” there is a line, “[number] kWh @ $[number].” The first number is your kWh usage for the month(s) on the bill. The second number is your current kWh unit price for the period of your bill. (Note the “Delivery and System Charges” and “Taxes and Other Charges” will not be affected if you switch plans; only the “Power Supply Charges” will change.)
• Multiply your annual kWh usage by the current kWh unit price in the “Power Supply Charges” line. This gives you an estimate of your annual Power Supply Charges cost.
• Add your current kWh unit price and the additional kWh unit price in each green energy plan. Multiply your annual kWh usage by the kWh unit price to get the annual additional cost for each green energy plan.
• Compare annual Power Supply Charges costs with your current plan and the green energy plans. You can divide the annual Power Supply Charges costs by 12 to get the estimated cost/month for each plan.

4. Choose a plan and sign up as instructed on the company’s website.

FYI/Answers to FAQs:

• PSEG will still be your utility.
• There will not be an interruption to your service, because wind and solar are in larger supply than demand. There are many wind farms and solar farms with which companies contract, so there is always wind or solar available for companies to purchase and supply to your home.
• Your electricity currently comes from PSEG’s default fuel mix, which is mostly coal, gas, and nuclear. Switching to wind or solar energy simply means you instruct your utility to purchase your energy needs from wind or solar.
• Switching to wind or solar energy is an investment in wind or solar technology. Eventually wind and solar will be the least expensive energy options for everyone everywhere. Purchasing wind or solar now makes that shift happen faster.
• Widespread use of wind or solar energy (1) significantly mitigates climate change and (2) makes mountaintop removal to mine coal in Appalachia, fracking, and oil pipelines that threaten livelihoods literally become things of the past, and (3) mitigates wars fought for oil. The lessening of suffering that independent, renewable energy leads to is quite simply phenomenal.