A winter of record-high heating bills. Now a summer of record high heat. 25 Investigates helped you break down utility bills that can be hard to understand.
Now, one state lawmaker wants to go a step further and put information on rates and supply at consumers’ fingertips.
“Over the past winter everybody got these shockingly high bills, both electric bills and gas bills, and there wasn’t really a sense that people knew what was coming,” said State Senator Bruce Tarr.
The Republican lawmaker says ratepayers should be able to plan ahead.
This month, Tarr filed an amendment to the supplementary budget calling for the Department of Public Utilities [DPU] to create and maintain an energy rate public dashboard that he hopes will help take the sticker shock out of your electric and gas bills.
It would include information on the current cost of electric and gas, when the rates took effect and when they expire, and a clear path to incentives and discounts that exist for Massachusetts ratepayers.
And Tarr said it would have to be information that’s easy to understand.
The second part of the amendment is to form a panel to study ways to reduce these costs.
He says it’s all about peeling back the curtain on how the DPU helps determine rates.
“So, they are making decisions often in a way that the public is not fully aware of, and this is a chance for folks to be able to see what’s happening,” Tarr said.
25 Investigates asked the DPU if they would support the creation of such a dashboard.
The department says it doesn’t weigh in on pending legislation.
It did point us to several resources for ratepayers that already exist.
- The energyswitchma.gov site allows users to compare their current electric rates through the state’s electric distribution companies (i.e. Eversource, National Grid, Unitil) to their city/town’s municipal electricity aggregation plan, and other electricity providers allowed to operate in Massachusetts.
- The DPU has a dedicated webpage Understanding Your Utility Bill to break down the different charges listed on both electric and gas utility bills.
- The DPU also provides information on the current electric rates & tariffs, gas rates, and recent rate cases on publicly available webpages:
- Electric Rates & Tariffs
- Electric Rate Cases
- Information on Gas Supply & Delivery Charges
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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