A Treasurer’s Perspective: CPCNH’s Financial Journey

Kathleen Kelley, CPCNH Treasurer, delivers remarks on financial performance at the Fall 2025 Member Meeting in Waterville Valley.

The following remarks were delivered by Kathleen Kelley, Board Treasurer of the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, at the Fall 2025 Member Meeting. Her remarks reflect on CPCNH’s recent challenges, financial realities, and the steps taken to strengthen the organization’s future.

Kathleen Kelley, Board Treasurer

Before you dive into a pool, you should always check the depth. As a lifeguard, I know this lesson well. Before elected Treasurer, I had not checked the depth. In April, I began to truly understand the complexity and depth of CPCNH challenges.

During the past twelve months or two rate periods, CPCNH lost millions of reserves. Our organization challenged the utilities in 2023 in New Hampshire, and they pushed back in 2025.

When we started CPCNH, we hired consultants, developed a business plan and risk policies based on best practices. Our membership offered a cost-effective path forward to less expensive, more stable, and renewable energy to municipalities, commercial and residential customers. In the first three rate periods, we thought we accumulated over $15,000,000 in net reserves, and we saved our customers as much!

We built an organization in three years which is now providing $15,000,000 per month of energy to NH with an overhead budget of 5%. The board knew the energy market was regulated and complicated, so much of that 5% overhead goes to highly qualified consultants.

• Hedging is 50% of our costs

• Initial ISO Energy Costs are 20%

• True Up ISO Energy Costs are fluctuating around 14%

• Renewable Energy (RECs) Compliance Costs are 7.5%

• Consulting Costs are 3%

• Borrowing costs have risen this year to 2.7%

• Staffing costs are 1%

The costs managed by our lean staff are driven by number of customers, number of MWH demanded by the customers, our ability to forecast that demand, our ability to forecast the weather in New Hampshire, the cost of participating in the NH energy market, the LSE contractor costs, the cost of using the utility lines, the cost of borrowing money, the cost of buying energy six to eight months in advance of delivery, the cost of not receiving revenue for 45 days after delivery, the cost of using the utility billing system, the cost of data management, and so on.

Since February, the staff and our consultants have helped develop a system for measuring accurately the cost of providing energy to our customers. We can now measure price and usage variances as well as financing and budget variances. Our accounting records are more accurately matching revenue to expense. September outcomes are very close to the budget set at the time of rate forecast.

The last nine months have been painful. Cash burned faster than we planned. Costs piled up. We restructured our lean staff. We stopped refreshing our customer base. We have analyzed alternative organizational structures and cost models. But we are in a better place and focused on our shared values.

With a clear understanding of the true cost of service, how to set rates that cover the cost, and an updated ERPM to reduce the risks, CPCNH is able to meet the needs of residential, municipalities and commercial customers. We made a commitment to achieve stability, reduce the cost of financing, and move toward becoming an LSE able to serve all customers.