National Grid Electricity Rates About to Jump Way Up (to buy, living)

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Remy11

Outdoor Lover,
Thanks so much for posting the YouTube clip. I’m going to watch now. It’s such a predicament we’re in. My brother’s friend signed up for a third party company a few years back and went through hell with them. They offered great deals for the first few months (which is how they suck you in) and then boom—the rates quadrupled out of nowhere, but he was stuck in a contract at that point.

Did you discover any for us that seem legit? Feel free to DM me as well!

Thanks again!

Hi Remy11 - regarding these 3rd party power suppliers, I have heard that's not uncommon, I recall the Mass Attorney General's office has even put out a communication warning people about them, thanks for sharing your own story.

Of course, that doesn't mean they're *all* shysters, but it does make me cautious, for sure. There's no way I'll accept a contract for over a year term, and 6 months is really the right term length, because National Grid will be revising their own prices offered in 6 months again, and the odds are they will drop way down in spring again! So if you took a 1-year contract at even a fixed 24 cents/kWh rate, then you'd save for the first 6 months and then almost certainly overpay for the next 6 months, and with auto-renewal, I think you wind up with a narrow window left to get out without paying penalties, that's the PITA about virtually all these 3rd party power suppliers. I can see that a lot of people don't trust National Grid "Big Power" ;-) - but they are actually providing transparency in all this, and they are basically agnostic about who we use for a supplier. The municipal program is also put together with the city to help us. It's the 3rd party suppliers that may be a good deal, or may be a rip-off - you have to read the fine print and maybe still cross your fingers with them.

I haven't totally given up on the 3rd party suppliers, but may just go with the municipal aggregation program - that's safe, and you can opt in/out at any time with no fees. It will save us some money and the "basic service" rate from National Grid will fall again in April - that's the bottom line, this high rate for basic service is really only for 6 months, and is something of an artifact of difficult market conditions coupled with National Grid's restrictions on their negotiations.

[GeoffD]

My town uses Constellation. The generation part is $0.1047. I presume someone is losing a lot of money on a futures contract.

[msRB311]

I see that the national grid rates are going up by 64% tomorrow?

[Rakin]

Looks like a good place for this.

During a speech today, Joe Biden bragged about the example of his visit to a Massachusetts coal-fired plant that was forced to close due to regulation. However, what Biden didn’t mention was the energy provider telling customers to expect a 64% increase in electricity rates effective November 1st.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMOL2KJwYw0

[Louisville Slugger]

What I don't understand is why can't they use coal to supplement generation of electricity alongside natural gas in the coldest months of the year here in New England? We close these plants, but did we ever do anything to replace what they are providing?

What good is an electric car if the costs per mile is just as much as a comparable gas vehicle?

Natural gas is a global commodity and the war in Ukraine is not helping, but we did a lot of this to ourselves when we closed plants, shot down pipeline expansions, etc. It's really basic supply and demand. We use what, over 60% of natural gas to heat homes and generate electricity in MA? Don't we have a really good supply of natural gas in the US? We just have no way of tapping into that here in New England without expanding our infrastructure.

The local stations here are annoying. Shut off lights when leaving rooms, unplug devices that are not in use. I think most people have been doing this for a while now. It's the same stuff every year when we get notices of these price increases. How about talking about the Mass Power Choice Program, shopping for an electric supplier, etc? You never hear the news stations talk about this.

I was in Cambridge last weekend and told my friend about how Cambridge was part of the Mass Power Choice Program and he could shop for his supplier. He rents, but pays for utilities separately and had no idea. Some basic math and a few clicks later and he was on his way to saving some money each month.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Louisville Slugger

What I don't understand is why can't they use coal to supplement generation of electricity alongside natural gas in the coldest months of the year here in New England? We close these plants, but did we ever do anything to replace what they are providing?

What good is an electric car if the costs per mile is just as much as a comparable gas vehicle?

Natural gas is a global commodity and the war in Ukraine is not helping, but we did a lot of this to ourselves when we closed plants, shot down pipeline expansions, etc. It's really basic supply and demand. We use what, over 60% of natural gas to heat homes and generate electricity in MA? Don't we have a really good supply of natural gas in the US? We just have no way of tapping into that here in New England without expanding our infrastructure.

The local stations here are annoying. Shut off lights when leaving rooms, unplug devices that are not in use. I think most people have been doing this for a while now. It's the same stuff every year when we get notices of these price increases. How about talking about the Mass Power Choice Program, shopping for an electric supplier, etc? You never hear the news stations talk about this.

I was in Cambridge last weekend and told my friend about how Cambridge was part of the Mass Power Choice Program and he could shop for his supplier. He rents, but pays for utilities separately and had no idea. Some basic math and a few clicks later and he was on his way to saving some money each month.

Yes, and we are near record highs in production of it right now. 2022 has some of the highest producing months on record in this country. Same with oil. Near record production.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Yes, and we are near record highs in production of it right now. 2022 has some of the highest producing months on record in this country. Same with oil. Near record production.

What does worldwide demand look like going into the winter? Last I checked there was a huge energy crisis in Europe but conditions may have changed. We could probably produce even more and not change the pricing situation.

Adding a pipeline to help transition to renewables would have been a helpful choice.

[yesmaybe]

https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/11/18...22-2023-winter

Eversource is going to increase the supply rate from 18 cents to 26 in January. And they also plan on increasing the delivery rate too, they just haven't applied yet.

[OutdoorLover]

Massachusetts has largely replaced coal and nuclear power generation with natural gas power generation. Mass gets about 77% of its electricity from natural gas.
https://www.nei.org/resources/statis...on-fuel-shares

People who really appreciate the beauty of mining and burning coal would be happiest in West Virginia, which gets about 91% of its electricity from burning locally mined coal. It also has the lowest life expectancy of any US state, but that's a small price to pay.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Massachusetts has largely replaced coal and nuclear power generation with natural gas power generation. Mass gets about 77% of its electricity from natural gas.
https://www.nei.org/resources/statis...on-fuel-shares

Except they won't build the infrastructure to pipe it in so they have to use LNG. Which is much more expensive. That's probably because they want to ban FF entirely... which is going to be awesome because I don't think people appreciate how much energy is needed for heat and for cars (which are basically portable heating machines).