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.

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?

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…

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

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

An example that is almost right on your numbers (600 kWh, $179 last winter, $293 this winter) was given back when they warned everyone in September: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/some-massachusetts-customers-will-see-a-64-increase-in-their-electric-bills-this-winter/2840633/

It also said the delivery rate remained flat, which is why your entire bill did not triple.

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

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

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

That looks closer to triple to me

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

WTH

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.

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

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)

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.

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?

[deleted]