The new pricing begins in December and runs for two years, through December 2025. The prices are lower than the basic service rate offered by Eversource Energy through the next eight months, but are higher than some other competitive suppliers.
In Massachusetts, homeowners can choose their electricity supplier. Eversource, which serves eastern Massachusetts, doesn’t generate electricity, but it does procure and sell power with no markup as a customer service. Eversource’s so-called basic service rate changes every six months. For years, the price of basic service was very competitive, but with recent turmoil in energy markets basic service has become less attractive. Indeed, Eversource encourages customers to shop around.
Boston, which operates the largest municipal aggregation plan in Massachusetts, has become a key barometer of the market for electricity. Currently, Boston procures electricity on behalf of about 65 percent of the city’s 330,000 electricity accounts, and is looking to increase its market share.
Starting Friday, participating customers in Boston’s Community Choice Electricity program will move to the new rates of the plans in which they are enrolled. New customers will be automatically enrolled in the standard service offering, which offers electricity that is 39 percent renewable and costs 14.8 cents a kilowatt hour.
A cheaper alternative (14.2 cents a kilowatt hour) with 24 percent renewable energy is available, but the customer must choose it. Customers who are willing to pay more (nearly 17.2 cents a kilowatt hour) can opt for electricity that is 100 percent renewable.
The Boston offerings all last two years, while Eversource’s basic service (currently 17.25 cents per kilowatt hour and 22 percent renewable) will change again in July. For the first six months of the year, typical Boston customers on the city’s standard service program will save about $15 a month compared to Eversource’s basic service, Boston officials said.
A press release issued by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu urged residents to stay away from other third-party competitive electricity suppliers. “Competitive electric suppliers often mislead and take advantage of residents, particularly seniors, people of color, and residents who speak a language other than English, promising them unreliable savings,” the press release said.
Citing reports released by the attorney general’s office, the Wu press release also said competitive electricity suppliers target residents of Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, East Boston, Hyde Park, and Roslindale. In Roxbury, according to the report, 57 percent of low-income residents are enrolled with competitive suppliers.
Wu supports legislative efforts by Attorney General Andrea Campbell and by her predecessor Maura Healey to ban competitive electric suppliers from doing business in Massachusetts. However, the company that provides electricity to the city of Boston for its municipal aggregation plan – Direct Energy – is one of those suppliers.
The effort to ban competitive electricity suppliers has been kicking around Beacon Hill for several years, and so far hasn’t gone anywhere. Many of the companies targeted by the legislation have banded together to push for legislation that would increase regulation of their businesses to weed out bad operators while allowing the rest of the industry to keep operating. To shop and compare prices and offerings, click here.