By next summer, Concord may become the latest New Hampshire community to buy its own electricity rather than paying whatever rate the utility offers.

If all goes as planned, a volunteer subcommittee will present a recommendation to the City Council in January that Concord establish a community power program. If the council agrees, as early as July the city could join about 50 towns and cities, including Nashua and Keene, that are already in the system or will join it in the spring.

Community power is a state law that enables towns and cities to buy electricity on the open market and then resell it to residents and small businesses, giving the possibility of buying cheaper power as well as getting more electricity from renewable sources. This has long been a possibility for large commercial users but only became feasible for homes and small businesses in the past two years.

Lower rates have been the big draw for community power, although savings vary depending on the place and situation.

“We don’t expect to launch the program without a price saving at the start,” said Chuck Willing, a member of the Community Power Subcommittee of the city’s Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee, during a presentation to the City Council on Monday.

Once a community adopts community power residents can use it or stick with the utility. The utility will handle billing and continue to charge for transmission and distribution of electricity, which takes up roughly half of most power bills.

According to the presentation, if the City Council decides to go ahead next year, notices would be sent to all electricity customers telling them about the program and allowing them to opt in or opt out of it. Sign-up details would depend on whether they get their power from Unitil or alternative competitive suppliers.

After mandating waiting periods and public information sessions the Public Utilities Commission would have to approve the project, meaning it couldn’t start before mid-July.

The path to community power has become much simpler in the past year – PUC approval, for example, is now routine – because many other communities have done it already. Sixteen communities have already started and about 30 more will launch in the spring, with dozens more including Bow looking into it.

“We’ve talked to a number of them and they’ve had great experiences,” said Willing. The one “hiccup,” he said, involves people who have solar and are on the net metering program. That transfer requires data that utilities are slow to provide. “Other than that, they didn’t have as many problems as they expected.”

The presentation indicated that if Concord enters the program, people and businesses would probably be offered four options regarding the amount of renewable power they buy, ranging from the same mix as the utility through 33% renewables, 50%, and 100%. The latter would be more expensive.

A big choice that the committee has to make is whether to recommend that Concord become part of the Community Power Coalition or work with a consultant that would help it pick a supplier.