Understanding Your MA Electricity Bill
No one can deny that MA electricity customers have had it tough. A rough winter and rising electricity rates has made it hard to keep the lights on. Worse than that is how hard it is to figure out your monthly electricity bills. So go grab a copy of your bill and let’s figure out how to read your MA electricity Bill.
Check Your MA Electricity Bill
Eversource Customers You’ll find your account number and service address at the top left of your Eversource bill. Your balance owed will be at the top right of the page. Below that you’ll find a breakdown of charges including past charges. Under that you’ll find your current delivery and supply charges. Finally, you’ll find information on your retail energy supplier if you aren’t on Eversource’s basic supply rate.
National Grid Customers You can will find your account number and service address at the top-middle of the page. Beneath that, they’ll find the current balance owed and information about any balanced owed in previous months. Further down the page, you will find the delivery/supply charge break down.
Quick Tip: Keep the account number handy in case you need to call Eversource or National Grid about any issues.
How MA Electricity Bills Are Charged
The key to understanding your MA utility bill lies in how your bill separates supply charges and delivery charges.
Supply Charges are the cost for the electricity you use in kilowatt hours (kWh). In MA, electricity consumers can choose their utility or their own electricity supplier. So it’s good to know how their electricity rates can differ. On one hand, Eversource or National Grid hold periodic auctions to set up their basic supply rate. But, utilities cannot make a profit on the basic supply rate. So, this price is passed directly to customers. On the other hand, you can sign up with a retail energy supplier. Retailers buy their supply on the wholesale power market and then sell it to their customers. They also compete with other retailers for customers by offering the lowest rates.
Delivery Charges are what Eversource and National Grid charge for delivering the power to your home. These charges also include their costs for maintaining the grid. It also factors in state-mandated public policy charges. Delivery charges vary depending on the utility, your town, or region. The only way to cut costs here is to use less electricity.
Save More on Your MA Electric Bills
You can always start with smart energy saving practices to reduce your usage. However, the best way to save is by shopping for retail supplier rates during the shoulder months. The shoulder months in the fall and spring are when energy demand is lower. This pushes prices down as well. So you can usually find rates that are better than the basic supply rate.
You can learn more about other ways of saving money and energy by comparing rates and plans at https://www.maenergyratings.com.