Here are some ways to lower your electric bill

MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS HAVE some options to avoid – or at least sidestep for awhile — the sky-high electricity rates coming this winter.

National Grid provided a glimpse of what’s coming last week, when it announced its basic service rate would jump to a record 33.9 cents a kilowatt hour starting November 1. That’s about three  times the current 11.5-cent rate and  more than twice last winter’s 14.8-cent rate. The new winter rate, if approved by state regulators, will increase the typical customer’s utility bill by $114 a month, or 64 percent, for the next six months. (CORRECTION: The original version of this story incorrectly misstated the size of the new rate.)

Utilities like National Grid make their money delivering power to customers. But many customers also have their utility buy power on their behalf; the utility runs a bidding process, contracts for electricity, and passes it along to customers with no markup. That means the astonishingly high price National Grid announced last week is likely a harbinger of what’s to come for electricity customers across the state in the coming months.

Eversource, the state’s biggest utility, is on a slightly different timetable, with its winter basic service rate kicking in on January 1. Its current basic service rate is 17.8 cents a kilowatt hour, but, due to the unsettled world energy markets, it will probably move into the same range as National Grid’s this winter.

Fortunately, customers can shop around for a better deal, either on their own or together with their neighbors if their hometown is what is called a municipal aggregator. (To see if your community aggregates, click here.) Either way, the state makes it easy to shop, with websites listing all the various rates. (Keep in mind, customers are just shopping for electricity; they remain customers of their local utility for delivery and customer service.)

In deciding which deal is the best, there are two major factors to consider – the price and the length of the contract. Prices are easy to compare, but choosing how long a contract you want to sign is more complicated. Do you believe energy markets will return to normal in six months, a year, or much longer?

For customers buying power on their own, plug in your zip code and start checking out the deals. In National Grid’s territory, the options aren’t that great. 

Worcester, for example, is currently offering its residents prices ranging from 11.4 cents to 14 cents per kilowatt hour, with the higher price providing 100 percent renewable energy. But those rates are due to expire at the end of November, when National Grid’s new 39-cent basic service rate kicks in. Worcester’s rates will probably head into the same range.

Buying power on your own is an option, with price offerings ranging from 18 cents to 27.3 cents a kilowatt hour, all well below National Grid’s basic service rate. But those rates come with contracts lasting 12 to 36 months, with lower rates for the longer contracts. That’s where the risk comes in, because National Grid’s basic service rate changes every six months. Rates will come down sometime in the future, but when?

Also keep in mind that Attorney General Maura Healey is advising customers not to buy power on their own. “Our research continues to show that vulnerable residents across our state are losing millions of dollars to these companies each year,” a Healey spokeswoman said. “We continue to urge customers to beware of deceptive suppliers taking advantage of these record high winter rates by promising cheaper electricity, only to stick them with higher rates and a contract they can’t get out of.”

Healey’s office has no concerns with municipalities that buy power on behalf of their residents. In the National Grid service territory, Attleboro and Fall River are offering very attractive rates of 10.5 to 14 cents a kilowatt hour through December 2023. If you’re a resident and not signed up, it may be time to do so.

In the Eversouce territory, where you live can save you money. Somerville, for example, is currently offering its residents prices ranging from 10.2 to 13.2 cents a kilowatt hour, but they expire at the end of the year, at the same time Eversource’s basic service rate is going to change. Both rates are probably headed much higher.

But other communities, including Boston and Cambridge, have locked in rates until the end of 2023. Cambridge’s prices range from 10.2 to 13.78 cents a kilowatt hour, while Boston’s rates are 10.8 cents to 13.9 cents a kilowatt hour. Those rates are lower than Eversource’s current basic service rate and likely to be much lower than its winter rate that kicks in on January 1.

Boston has 200,000 residential customers signed up, but that leaves as many as 100,000 others who could sign up and save significant money. (Details are here.)

Dave Musselman, director of Boston’s municipal energy unit, said the city’s current price was negotiated in late 2021, before the war in Ukraine, which destabilized energy markets and sent prices soaring.

The city’s price is very attractive now, but Musselman, in retrospect, wishes he had negotiated a longer-term deal. “You can’t predict exactly,” he said. “If you could predict it, I would have retired a long time ago.”

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

What went wrong: Reproductive Equity Now releases an analysis of what went wrong with a 2017 law that was intended to address birth control access but instead failed to get the attention of insurers, pharmacists, and patients. 

– The law required insurers to cover most forms of birth control with no copays and directed pharmacists to fill 12-month prescriptions. Research indicates a three-month supply reduces by 30 percent the chance of an unintended pregnancy.

– The reproductive rights group said the law was drafted poorly because there were no clear reporting requirements, no penalties for noncompliance, no funding for a public awareness campaign, and no language addressing pharmacy red tape issues.
– Many of those issues were addressed after a CommonWealth report early last year on how the law fell through the cracks and helped few women. Read more.

Baker’s thoughts on immigration: Gov. Charlie Baker for the second time refuses to criticize Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for airlifting Venezuelan immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. Baker blames both Democrats and Republicans for failing to pass immigration reform, and says the basic position of progressive Democrats is that the country shouldn’t have borders. Read more.

OPINION

Wellness not enough: Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, says nurses need more than a wellness program; they need new laws to protect them from exploitation. Murphy was responding to a recent commentary in CommonWealth promoting a wellness program for health care workers. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is replacing nearly every member of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal, the panel that must approve a wide array of smaller development projects. (Boston Globe) 

Boston City Hall officials say they’ll end the circular-logic practice, which started under the Walsh administration, of closing the book on some public records requests because there’s been no action on the petition when that inaction has been the city ignoring it. (Boston Herald) 

After a lengthy court battle, Nahant loses its bid to block the expansion of the Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. (Daily Item)

Northampton wins a designation as a “Certified Vacant Storefront District” and the chance to participate in a state program offering tax breaks to businesses that move into empty buildings. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

The Congressional Budget Office estimates President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will cost $400 billion. (NPR)

Congressional leaders are scrambling to put together a spending bill that will pass before the government shutdown that would kick in on Saturday at the end of the federal government’s fiscal year. (New York Times) 

The Transportation Department is proposing that airlines must disclose all fees upfront when people start booking flights. (Reuters)

ELECTIONS

The jockeying among councilors is in full swing as the Boston City Council considers various redistricting schemes to redraw lines for the nine district council seats. (Four of the 13 members are elected citywide.) (Boston Herald) 

A committee has been formed that aims to put a question on the 2024 state ballot asking voters to approve suspending the state’s 24-cents-per-gallon gas tax anytime gas prices go over $3 per gallon. (Salem News) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Massachusetts is a WFH leader, with 23.7 percent of employees in the state working from home last year, trailing only Washington, DC, Washington State, Maryland, and Colorado. (Boston Globe) 

Biogen, without admitting any wrongdoing, agrees to pay $900 million to settle charges that it paid doctors to prescribe its multiple sclerosis drugs. (WBUR)

Susan Collins, the new head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, says a modest slowdown of the economy is possible. She says inflation may be peaking or may have already peaked. (State House News Service)

Interprint is planning a $22 million expansion of its plant in Pittsfield to launch into the vinyl tile market. The expansion will add 20 new jobs. (Berkshire Eagle)

EDUCATION

Mary Skipper officially took the reins yesterday as Boston’s new school superintendent. (Boston Globe) 

TRANSPORTATION

The main MBTA employees’ union is suing the T over an arbitrator’s ruling that would bring big cuts to the pension of workers who retire before age 65. (Boston Globe) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

An emeritus MIT professor is leading a company setting out to solve one of the key riddles of the effort to move toward widespread use of clean energy – development of a battery that can efficiently store dramatically more power than current kinds of batteries can. (Boston Globe)