{"id":263,"date":"2014-11-11T20:42:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T20:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/?p=263"},"modified":"2014-12-30T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T20:15:15","slug":"nstar-electricity-rates-set-to-go-up-for-massachusetts-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/2014\/11\/11\/nstar-electricity-rates-set-to-go-up-for-massachusetts-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"NSTAR Electricity Rates Set to go up for Massachusetts Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy Choice Matters<\/a>, a highly respected website committed to providing timely and in-depth coverage of the competitive retail electric (and natural gas) markets, and the Boston Globe<\/a> are reporting NSTAR customers can expect electricity supply costs to go up by\u00a029%. \u00a0If approved by regulators, the new residential default service rate will increase to\u00a014.972 cents per kilowatt-hour beginning January 1, 2015.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This rate announcement is of little surprise, as\u00a0comes on the heels of \u00a0National Grid’s November 1st rate increase of 37% (compared to last winter), but will still be a shock to the wallets of NStar customers.<\/p>\n

Do consumers have options? \u00a0Yes!<\/h2>\n

Prior to 1997, electric utilities owned both the distribution function \u2013 the poles and wires \u2013 and the supply function \u2013 electricity generation. \u00a0This means that\u00a0National Grid and NSTAR are\u00a0only responsible for delivering the power to their customers, but not generating it. As a result, customers are free to choose from Competitive Electricity Suppliers\u00a0such as Provider Power Mass<\/a>. \u00a0(Along with ENH Power<\/a> and Electricity Maine<\/a>, Provider Power Mass is part of the Provider Power family of companies and was recently recognized by Inc. magazine<\/a> as one of the nations fastest growing companies).<\/p>\n

Energy experts\u00a0and advocates across New England are raising awareness of these rising electricity supply rates and the opportunities to shop around with competitive suppliers\u00a0like Provider Power. Ann Berwick, Director of the State Department of Public Utilities in Massachusetts, was recently quoted in the Barnstable Patriot <\/a>\u00a0suggesting\u00a0this is the time for consumers to consider electricity supply companies.<\/p>\n

Maine\u2019s Public Advocate, Tim Schneider, is quoted in a recent news story <\/a>as saying consumers should pay attention to the rates offered by\u00a0competitive electricity supply companies such as Provider Power (Electricity Maine). \u201cI think they are indicative of what the next annual solicitation will be for the standard offer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emile Clavet, co-owner of Provider Power Mass, suggests consumers review the market and \u201clock in\u201d a longer term contract for electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all depends on personal risk,\u201d said Clavet. \u201cIn this environment, with so much fluctuation in the cost of power, it is our belief that the best option for consumers is to lock-in a longer term contract\u2014especially one that covers as many \u2018peak seasons\u2019 – winter and summer months – as possible. Fixed, longer term contracts protect consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Similar to oil-price contracts that allow customers to pay a set price per gallon during the heating season even if the price of heating oil spikes, competitive electricity suppliers offer similar types contracts for your home’s electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t a model that suggests rates will go down any time soon,\u201d added Clavet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy Choice Matters, a highly respected website committed to providing timely and in-depth coverage of the competitive retail electric (and natural gas) markets, and the Boston Globe are reporting NSTAR customers can expect electricity supply costs to go up by\u00a029%. \u00a0If approved by regulators, the new residential default service rate will increase to\u00a014.972 cents per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,8,15],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-nstar","tag-provider-power-mass","tag-rate-increase"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p556Rx-4f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/providerpower.com\/mass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}