Massachusetts Electricity Rates: Which Supply Are You Actually On?

Almost every page about Massachusetts electricity rates quotes a statewide average of about 29.6 cents per kWh. That number is not your supply rate. It is a backward looking all in figure that includes delivery, and it tells you nothing about the decision in front of you.

The more useful fact is this. Only about a quarter of Massachusetts electricity customers are on their utility’s standard rate at all. Boston.com, citing state data, reported that as of March 2026 just 26.6 percent were on Basic Service. Around 51 percent were in a municipal aggregation programme run by their town, and about 22 percent had signed with a supplier themselves.

So before any rate is any use to you, you need to know which of four situations you are in.

Which supply are you actually on?

Look at the supply or supplier line on your latest bill, then find yourself here.

Your situation	What it means
Basic Service	You buy default supply from Eversource, National Grid or Unitil. This is the rate in the table below
Municipal aggregation	Your town buys supply for residents in bulk. You were enrolled unless you opted out. Your utility still delivers and still bills you
An individual supplier	You signed a contract yourself. This is the group the Attorney General has been writing about, and not in a good way
A municipal light plant town	Your town owns the electricity company. You may not be able to shop at all

You may not be allowed to shop, and most pages will not tell you

You will read everywhere that Massachusetts is deregulated, so residents can switch supplier. For a lot of the state that is simply not true.

Massachusetts has 41 municipal light plants, serving all or part of 50 municipalities. If your town owns its electricity company, state law lets it keep outside suppliers out. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 164 section 47A allows a municipal lighting plant to prohibit outside suppliers from making retail sales inside its territory.

Belmont, Braintree, Concord, Danvers, Holyoke, Hudson, Ipswich, Marblehead, Peabody, Reading, Shrewsbury, Taunton, Wakefield, Wellesley and Westfield are among them, and there are many more. If your bill comes from your town rather than from Eversource, National Grid or Unitil, the supplier marketplaces cannot help you, whatever their front page says.

What Basic Service costs right now

These are supply rates only, set for 1 August 2026 to 31 January 2027. They change again on 1 February 2027.

Your utility	Basic Service rate	At 600 kWh a month, supply only
Unitil, Fitchburg Gas and Electric	18.921 cents per kWh	about $113.53
Eversource East, NSTAR	17.323 cents	about $103.94
National Grid, fixed option	17.185 cents	about $103.11
Eversource West, WMECo	15.934 cents	about $95.60

Rates from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Energy Advocate newsletter and the utilities’ own tariffs. Delivery charges sit on top and do not change when you change supplier.

Two things worth noticing. Unitil customers pay nearly three cents more per kWh than Eversource West customers for the same electricity, which is about eighteen dollars a month on a typical bill and is entirely down to where you live. And one comparison site currently lists the Unitil rate as 0.00 cents, which should tell you how carefully some of these tables are maintained.

National Grid’s variable rate has been cheaper than its own fixed rate

National Grid offers Basic Service two ways: a fixed price for the whole six month period, or a variable price that is reset every month.

The fixed price for this period is 17.185 cents. The variable price in September 2026 was 15.615 cents. It has been below the fixed price every month since the period began.

That is not a recommendation. Variable means it can rise, and in January 2026 it reached 17.391 cents. It is simply a real choice that most pages do not mention, and it costs nothing to know about.

The part the Attorney General measured

This is the strongest evidence in any state we cover, and it comes from the state’s own law officer rather than from a comparison site.

On 31 March 2026, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell published a report finding that Massachusetts residential customers who switched to competitive supply collectively paid over $738.7 million more over the last decade than they would have on Basic Service. In the twelve months from July 2024 to June 2025 alone, the net loss was $87.4 million.

The detail that should stop you is who pays it. In that year, low income customers lost an average of $286 each. Everyone else lost an average of $181. The households least able to absorb it lost the most.

That finding is about individual contracts, not your town’s programme

This distinction matters and it is routinely blurred. The Attorney General’s figures cover people who signed with a supplier themselves. They are not about municipal aggregation.

The Attorney General’s own page on competitive electric supply makes the separation explicit, noting that none of the legislation under consideration would affect municipal aggregation programmes.

So if you are in your town’s programme, those losses are not your losses. Whether your aggregation rate beats Basic Service is a separate question, and the answer depends on the deal your town struck and when. Compare your aggregation rate against the table above and you have your answer in about a minute.

If you are thinking of signing with a supplier

Given the numbers above, the burden of proof sits with the offer. Before you agree to anything, get answers to these:

Is the rate fixed or variable, and for exactly how many months?
What happens the day the term ends? Most contracts roll onto a variable rate automatically. That is where the saving usually disappears.
Is there a monthly charge on top of the per kWh rate?
What does it cost to leave early?
How does the rate compare with the Basic Service number in the table above, for your territory, not a statewide average?

You have three days to cancel after signing a residential contract. A switch itself can take up to two billing cycles to appear, so if your bill has not changed yet, that is normal rather than a failure.

Where to compare, today

Massachusetts runs its own comparison site, Energy Switch Massachusetts, and the Department of Public Utilities publishes every utility’s current rates and tariffs. Neither is paid a referral fee. Most of the sites you will find searching for rates are paid by the suppliers they list, and the honest ones say so in their own small print.

We are not live in Massachusetts yet. We cover Texas today, and Massachusetts is on the list. Use the state’s own site meanwhile, and leave your email if you want to know the day we launch here.

Tell me when ChooseMyPower covers Massachusetts

One email when we go live here. Nothing else.

Questions

How do I tell if my town has a municipal light plant?

Look at who sends your electricity bill. If it is your town or a name like Municipal Light Department rather than Eversource, National Grid or Unitil, that is a municipal light plant, and you probably cannot shop for a supplier.

How do I tell if I am in municipal aggregation?

Your bill still comes from Eversource, National Grid or Unitil, but the supply line names a community programme rather than the utility or a supplier you chose. You were enrolled unless you sent back an opt out notice.

Is aggregation the thing the Attorney General says lost people money?

No. Those findings are about people who signed with a supplier individually. Aggregation is treated separately, and the Attorney General’s own page says the legislation under discussion would not affect it.

Why is the 29.6 cents figure everywhere?

It is a federal statewide average of what people actually paid, including delivery, and it is months old by the time it is published. It is a fine statistic and a poor basis for a decision.

Will my power go out if I switch?

No. Your utility still delivers the electricity and still handles outages, whoever supplies it.