In 2009 Suzanne served on a legislative study committee that looked at the benefits of electricity customers knowing the sources of the energy distributed by their utility and in what form(s) our state's electric utilities should make that information available.
In 2010 the members of that committee were successful in passing a bill that requires the utilities to make this information available to their customers, with final rules from the Public Utilities Commission.
In general, electric utilities might own and produce their own power (PSNH, for example, is the only regulated NH electric utility allowed to own power-generating facilities) and/or purchase power either through contracts or on the open market. Over a year's time, that mix of energy sources might include some renewable sources (such as wind from the 24 megawatts of power generated by the turbines in Lempster or biomass from PSNH's wood-burning plant) and some fossil-fuel–burning sources (such as PSNH's coal-burning plant in Bow).
You will start to see an annual accounting of your utility's energy mix either directly on your bill or a reference to a place on their website where it's explained. Since the burning of fossil-fuels causes more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (a direct correlation with climate change), the more you see fossil fuels listed in the mix, the more you might be motivated to conserve electric use (like turning off lights and your computer when not using them).
It's important to realize that all energy generated from power plants in our region gets sent to the regional electric grid (overseen by ISO New England), and that the power sent to your house is a mix of what's on the grid. It's likely, though, that the closer you are to the source used by your utility, the more likely your power will be largely from that source.