National Grid rate increase, but seems a lot higher than anticipated?

Submitted by jumboshrimp93 t3_zyepqt in boston

Am I just being "old man yells at cloud" here? I know National Grid was planning on a major price hike in the winter, but this jump seems...a lot higher than it should.

My bills are typically in the $120 - $150 range, highest in the summer being $170. I live in a 2 bedroom condo. But my last bill was $275. That's a pretty astronomical difference, but is it right?

I called them and they told me it was, basically gave me the cold shoulder and didn't try to provide much insight, instead got a chilly "you can move to another supplier if you like"...customer service of the year right there. My neighbors also told me their bills didn't go up as high, instead just a $50 or so increase. Although maybe they switched to another supplier a long time ago and didn't mention that.

I am looking at the service rate, which went from 11491 to 33891. They said the increase was going to be 64%, but this looks like it's more than double. What gives?

Should I be looking into switching to another supplier? Anyone else going through similar concerns? Given the economy right now yet probably not getting any sort of raise this year, this kind of sucks if I'm going to have to pay $150 more a month for my electric bill.

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EatTheRichAllOfThem t1_j25hk32 wrote

Every bill for every service for every person has gone up because rates & prices increases. The question you should be asking is did my usage go up?

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simonsays123 t1_j25k7ho wrote

Yes, the supply rates have jumped a lot, especially for National Grid. 33.89cents/kwh is the correct supply rate for National Grid for the next 6 months. National Grid and Eversource adjust their basic supply rates every 6 months.

The supply rate is only about half the bill, the rest is delivery. The supply rates have been impacted by the prevailing price of natural gas as this is how the Northeast generates much of its electricity, especially at the margins.

On your bills, compare the kwh usage vs previous months to see if it’s just the rate increase impacting you, or if you also consumed more.

Look for a “community aggregation” program in your town, where your town can negotiate a thirdparty supply rate that you can opt into. In many towns, this will result in 10-20% bill savings over using the basic supply rate

Example in Boston: https://www.boston.gov/departments/environment/community-choice-electricity

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IrishLion89 t1_j29892n wrote

I highly recommend looking into the community aggregation programs. Most will offer a couple different tiers depending on how much of your electricity supply you want coming from renewable sources. They also typically lock in their rates for a longer time so they won't change twice a year.

When I lived in Boston I had signed up for it and it was definitely cheaper than Eversource. Now in Stoneham, I signed up for their 100% renewable community aggregation and even that tier is cheaper than Eversource's basic supply rate.

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DooceBigalo t1_j25xfg0 wrote

my bill for my apartment went from $45 to 280 for the last month, this sucks.

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tokhar t1_j25gpe1 wrote

You should have access to previous bills, including the one for the same period last year. Compare how much electricity you used, as well as the billing period and what the other charges were. That will give you better details as to where the increase came from, and perhaps find an error.

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jumboshrimp93 OP t1_j25j6cl wrote

So looking at a bill from the summer, usage was 650 kWh and the bill was $170. This last bill was $275 with 550 kWh. I guess I’m just confused by the quoted “64%” increase, because the service rate tripled…

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simonsays123 t1_j29je3q wrote

National Grid's supply rates change every 6 months and the winter rate is nearly always higher than the summer. So a better comparison may be the 14.82cents/kWh from last winter's supply rate. Assuming a rough 15cents/kwh delivery fee:

550kWH last winter = $7 customer charge + (14.82 cents/kwh supply * 550) + (15 cents/kwh delivery * 550) = $170

550kWH this winter = $7 customer charge + (33.89 cents/kwh supply * 550) + (15 cents/kwh delivery * 550) = $275

This particular case would be about 73% total bill increase compared to last winter, even though the supply rate went from 14.82 to 33.89 winter over winter (229% increase)

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witterss t1_j25la92 wrote

I have Eversource and I'm dealing with the same thing. This is happening to all of us.

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riski_click t1_j25yo4x wrote

i was not expecting the bill I got today, that's for sure.. :-(

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kmkmrod t1_j26wj88 wrote

The rate doubled. They said it would double and it did.

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jumboshrimp93 OP t1_j26wqvs wrote

That looks closer to triple to me

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kmkmrod t1_j26xblk wrote

Are you comparing last year’s bill for this time to this year’s bill? Or last month to this month?

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jumboshrimp93 OP t1_j26xquf wrote

I’m looking at both this time last year, where my bill was around $110 (though usage was lower) and looking at my highest usage bill this summer, which was $170.

When they say there’s a 64% increase they should be referring to the static service rate right? The thing that’s confusing me is the service rate going from .11 to .33. That’s not 64%. And it’s the only thing that I saw a jump in from this pill and previous bills.

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potentpotables t1_j26zsff wrote

Same here. I don't know where they got that 64% increase from, maybe last winter? I don't have that rate handy though.

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simonsays123 t1_j29jowi wrote

When they quoted 64% increase over last winter, they were referring to the total bill (including monthly customer charge, supply, and delivery), not just the supply rate.

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UniWheel t1_j26xmer wrote

If you want to see any meaning at all, you need to break it down by:

  1. Your usage in kilowatt hours, compared to say this time last year (and make sure you're looking at actual meter readings, not the scourge of estimated ones!)
  2. Your supply charge per kwh, this just jumped drastically - likely now an astronomical 33.891 cents or so?
  3. Your delivery charge per kwh
  4. Fixed customer charge, perhaps included in the deliver total ($7 or so iirc)

Any post, call, complaint, whatever that doesn't address these individually is indeed yelling at clouds - perfectly understandable under the situation as we're all hurting - but in no way going to lead to any insight or understanding.

A further complication is that people who's billing period spanned the Nov 1 rate change seem to have gotten an initial bill using some sort of weighted average rate. You likely won't see the true painful rate until you have a billing period that's entirely post Nov 1.

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fast_an_loose t1_j2712x9 wrote

Yes, I'm not sure where the BS 64% came from. More like a ~200% increase if my math is right.

We locked in a 19.990 cent/kwh rate a few weeks ago. No cancellation fee so the plan is to cancel if the national grid rates drop below that come the end of April. Link: https://www.energyswitchma.gov/

Also, for reference, the NG Rate table: https://www.nationalgridus.com/media/pdfs/billing-payments/electric-rates/ma/resitable.pdf

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jumboshrimp93 OP t1_j272pws wrote

Yea exactly! Unfortunately talking to NG on the phone probably won’t get me anywhere.

I did find that energyswitch site and am probably going to look into that or reach out to the community electricity program. In regards to the former though I’m just a little concerned about catches.

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WutangX90 t1_j29zirp wrote

Can I ask what supplier you went with? Just googling some of these companies (Inspire, Townsquare Energy) there are a ton of posts on Reddit saying these companies are a scam. Any concern with that?

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[deleted] t1_j270uw6 wrote

$330 gas bill last month compared to $160 same month last year for us.

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SpiritedCamel_ t1_j29hpfd wrote

My last gas bill was $380. I'm mentally preparing for a $600+ bill now that it's actually cold.

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