Electricity de-regulation meant that charges had to be split into two different categories.

Generation charges refer to the cost of actually generating electricity. This is where you have a choice of provider.

Distribution charges refer to the cost of maintaining the wires that bring power to your home, billing your account, etc. Because we can't have competing networks of electric wires running all over our towns and cities, you don't get a choice there.

During the summer, electricity generation charges can often be less per kilowatt hour than distribution charges. But during the winter that is less likely to be the case, because demand for power (and even more so for the fuels burned to create it) increases. In particular, while distribution charges tend to be in the range of 12-14 cents, your generation rates may have shot up to over 30 cents on November 1st due to the global shortage / price hikes of natural gas, which is what powers much of MA's electric generation.

You are in effect about to get what you believe you should - a bill where most of the cost goes to generation not distribution. But definitely not in the way you hoped to, because while the distribution cost won't have changed, the generation cost will have almost tripled.

And even that first bill may be misleading of the bills to come this winter, because if your billing period spans between October and November, that first winter bill may reflect an average of the old rate and the far higher new one. It's not until your next bill that you're going to see the true generation charge broken out, though you can see it on your electric supplier's website.

Sitting here in four layers...