According to Town Administrator Shawn MacInnes, customers who receive their electric supply from Public Power, LLC through the program will have their rates increase from 10.21 cents per kilowatt hour to 10.43 cents per kilowatt hour.

MacInnes said the reason behind the increase is Public Power, LLC was unable to meet the previous rate, which the town and Public Power agreed to in December 2017. The contract should have been in effect for three years.

The electricity aggregation program is a collaboration between Dartmouth and 22 other communities in Massachusetts that began in 2016. Towns purchased electricity in bulk to secure a fixed rate for the contract period -- or so they thought.

Residents were automatically enrolled in the program when it began, as are new Eversource customers when they sign up.

The increased cost had already been agreed on by other towns through their attorneys. Changes have been made to the contract to prevent increases like this from happening again without negotiations.

The increased cost is still lower than Eversource’s current basic rate.