As Massachusetts state leaders continue to hear an outcry from constituents over unaffordable energy bills, energy choice shoppers and advocates in March provided lawmakers with stories of personal experiences and an education on how energy customers can reduce their energy bills by shopping for electricity with a competitive supplier.
The Retail Energy Advancement League (REAL) and its membership –– the nation’s leading energy suppliers –– partnered with My Energy Choice shopping advocates and the What’s In My Electric Bill platform for two days of advocacy and education at the Massachusetts State House.
Energy shoppers from various communities throughout Massachusetts gathered at the State House to share the benefits they receive from shopping for their electric supplier. In meetings with lawmakers, these energy customers provided examples of positive shopping experiences that rewarded them with significant cost savings.
With shopping totes in hand, full of educational materials for lawmakers to share with constituents, the shoppers also delivered a petition and quotes on behalf of more than 5,000 residents statewide asking legislators to protect their energy choices and oppose proposed legislation (Senate Bill 2255, Sen. Brendan Crighton and House Bill 3534, Rep. Frank Moran) that would take away the ability for residential customers to shop for the one item on their electric bill they have the option to change.
The reasons why these customers shopped differed, but they all agreed that shopping provided them with what they want from an electric supplier and are against any legislation that would take their energy choices away.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Mike Lucarelli of Upton said, perplexed as to why state leaders would want to take something away from him that helps save him money. Mike has been shopping for electricity for more than two decades, something he started doing just to reduce his electric bills. “Two years ago, I probably saved $150 a month on my National Grid bill just because I shopped.”
While Mike shops to put money back in his pocket, other energy choice advocates shared with lawmakers that they shop for a 100% renewable energy product that they can’t get with their utility company.
“I wanted cleaner energy and found it by shopping on the state’s energy shopping website,” said Larry Cole of Weymouth, an electricity shopper for nearly four years. “Even with a 100 percent renewable energy product, the rate I locked in with my supplier is still less than the current rate of the basic product my utility company is offering.”
Competition creates choices that benefit customers. That was the message energy shoppers shared with lawmakers during their daylong visit to the State House. If the market closes and eliminates competition, energy shoppers lose their choices and will be forced to return to their local utility, with no option but to accept the product and price the utility wants to sell them.
There was legislation that advocates were asking lawmakers to support. House Bill 3459 and Senate Bill 2311, sponsored by Rep. Tackey Chan and Sen. Patrick O’Conner, will modernize the competitive energy supply market and increase consumer protections for shoppers. This reform legislation has been a REAL priority for multiple legislative sessions in an attempt to enhance the customer shopping experience and add new safeguards to protect inexperienced shoppers.
To understand the problems constituents are facing with their energy bills, lawmakers must understand what makes up an electric bill and how a customer is receiving their energy.
During an energy forum hosted by REAL, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Abby Foster was joined by What’s In My Electric Bill developer Robert Rio who walked legislators and their staff through the makeup of a Massachusetts electric bill and the structure of energy supply in communities across the Commonwealth.
Rio pointed out that over the last 10 years the average utility bill for a 750 kilowatt hour per month customer steadily increased well above the inflation rate. The monthly bill for a residential customer using 750 kWh a month jumped nearly $160 a month in that 10 year span. He also noted that policy charges during that same time for the same monthly energy use increased by 25 percent.
Foster educated lawmakers on the various types of plans, incentives and suppliers including, utility companies, competitive energy suppliers, and municipalities that establish an aggregation program where they can lock in an agreement with a competitive energy supplier to serve a large group in that community.
As energy customers are trying to find ways to save, Foster walked forum attendees through how to compare the electricity rate offered by a utility company to the rates of competitive energy suppliers on the Massachusetts electricity shopping website. Foster shared resources that are available to help better educate constituents who are struggling to address their energy situation and even offered ideas on how Massachusetts can better educate and inform energy users on the options available to them.
As Governor Healey rolls out her affordable energy initiative, including a $50 credit to customers, lawmakers were reminded that with the ability to shop for energy in Massachusetts, customers could be saving $50 a month if they shop for lower rates.
A recent analysis of electric rate state averages revealed energy customers who shop and use 1,000 kilowatt hours a month could have saved $300 –– or $50 a month –– from August through January when compared to the average rate of all seven utility companies during that time if they enrolled with the lowest fixed rate offer in their area.
