Town Of Southborough News - National Grid Rate Increase
From: Town Of Southborough
October 11, 2022
National Grid recently sent notice of a pending rate increase for residential customers:
- Effective November 1, 2022, the National Grid base electricity price for residential customers (National Grid’s Basic Service) will increase to approximately 34¢ per kilowatt hour (kWh).
- This new rate is more than double the rate that current residential customers pay for electricity supplied by National Grid.
- Southborough residents have an option to pay much less than this 34¢/kwh rate by purchasing their electricity through the “Southborough Community Power Choice” (SCPC) program (which approximately 2/3 of the Town’s residential electricity customers now use).
- Anyone currently participating in the SCPC program will not be affected by this National Grid price increase and will not need to take any action at this time.
- Anyone not participating in the SCPC program might consider looking into this program as a way to save money and avoid a “surprise” from future electricity bills.
- Please note that accounts that have previously opted out of the program may not be eligible for the program price at the time of enrollment and may instead receive a market price.
For those unfamiliar with the SCPC program, the following information may be useful:
- Your National Grid bill has a charge for two services: (1) use of the National Grid power distribution system (the wires/transformers/etc.) and (2) the cost of the electricity itself.
- Every residential customer has to use (and pay for) National Grid’s distribution system (because this is the only available option to get power delivered to you).
- But, every residential customer has a number of options for purchasing electricity. These options include National Grid (for the soon-to-be-increased price), the SCPC (the current choice of about 2/3 of Southborough National Grid customers) and a variety of other providers. National Grid is obligated to “deliver” a customer’s electricity from any source.
- The current electricity price for SCPC program participants is 10.999¢/kwh, and this price is guaranteed until December 2024.
- Anyone can join the SCPC program at any time—easily and quickly on-line or via phone.
- Anyone may terminate participation in the SCPC at any time (by selecting another electricity supplier, including National Grid’s Basic Service)—with no penalty.
- Because National Grid’s prices change and their future prices are not known, future savings compared with National Grid cannot be guaranteed.
- Please refer to the content at the links below for more information about this.
- If you have questions about this and you’d like to speak with someone local about this, please call the Southborough Select Board’s Office at (508)485-0710.
Reference Information: Electricity Choice and Southborough’s “Community Power Choice”
Attachment
southborough_power_choice_program.pdf
