Boston Electricity Rates Set to Spike

Homes and businesses located in Boston and the surrounding areas are going to experience a sharp spike in the price they pay for electricity in January. NSTAR Electric, the utility company that delivers power to Boston consumers, recently announced a rate increase for power supply of 59.7% that will go into effect on January 1, 2015. NSTAR Electric consumers are scrambling to minimize the damage the price increase will impose by shopping for lower Boston electricity rates offered through Massachusetts electricity choice.

Similar to its neighboring states of Connecticut and New York, Massachusetts is an electricity choice state. Competitive electricity companies are able to solicit power rates to consumers throughout Massachusetts. This allows consumers to shop and try to keep their electric bills down if the market prices become lower than the utility default rate.

As the local regulated electric utility of Boston, NSTAR electric responsible for proving a default rate for electricity supply for those customers who do not shop the market for competitive electricity rates. The NSTAR default rate, labeled the price to compare, is the charge that is set to increase by 59.7% in January 2015. The December 2014 rate of $0.0938 per KWh will be increasing to $0.1498 for those NSTAR customers on the fixed default rate structure. The fixed default rate remains fixed for six month intervals, meaning that the $0.1498 rate will stay in effect through the end of June 2015. Some default paying customers on the variable rate structure will see an even bigger increase in January as those rates are set to go as high as $0.2080.

Customers can avoid the entire price increase and protect themselves from the possibility of an even bigger increase in July by locking in a low Boston electricity rate offered by a competitive supplier. All of the companies offering competitive electricity rates to NSTAR Electric customers are licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Energy.