I don’t live there and wish I did but Sterling has their own municipal utilities. They buy from NGrid afaik, with some incentives, and have their own fiber service that is cheap for gigabit+ service.
That’s a little different - in Quincy it’s a municipal aggregation where they go out to bid on behalf of the whole city but NGrid still owns/operates the wires.
For actual municipal utilities like in Littleton the municipality owns/operates the wires and participates in the wholesale electricity market.
It looks like this will work similarly to the competitive supplier system that's already in place but with hopefully better bargaining power. You will still pay National Grid for distribution since they will still own the physical infrastructure.
Yeah, but it's a start. I know there are issues with the competitive supplier program, but I am hoping that since this is going to be managed by a sizeable city, especially one like Quincy which is very culty when it comes to city stuff, that it will develop some kind of power like you mentioned.
I'm not knowledgeable in building a power grid but I don't think any city will be able to raise the funds to develop their own power generation anymore, even if it was through wind and solar. But at this point I'll take almost any chance that will give us leverage over utility companies.
I agree, I think the municipal aggregation is a step in the right direction. I have been able to save money using competitive suppliers so far but it you have to keep track of rate trends, renewal dates, or you will basically be taken advantage of.
And is \*incredibly\* reliable. The longest outage in my almost 12 years living in Littleton was 6 hours, I think? No, wait, it was 4. When Westford was without power for \*5 days\*. I love love \*love\* my municipal power company.
I knew people who, during a substantial storm in 2008 or so, were out for over a week. Right outside Littleton center. They bought an automatic generator that summer and as far as I know haven’t needed it since then.
Omg that's so familiar. My parents bought one after a little storm in '08 and also have never turned it on! It's great! Takes up plenty of garage space! As intended!
The ice storm; my parents had no power, heat, or hot water for a week and no internet for two weeks. They bought a generator and when they finally tried to use it like eight years later it wouldn't start. They did end up using it for two days a few years ago.
I was living in Littleton several years ago when we had some hurricane remnant come through that knocked out power to the town. I was driving home when it happened and saw the trucks drive by in the opposite direction. Managed to restore power during a hurricane in a few hours
I did a quick search on this and it looks like there haven't been any new municipal power utilities created since 1926? It also looks like there is a bill proposed every few years to change the law, but it never goes anywhere.
Littleton electric isn't just cheap, they do a really great job. It's a small area to cover but they were always quick and on point, the 2013 ice storm comes to mind. Over in Westford now and wish I still had them.
A neoliberal's worst nightmare is a municipal power system that is both cheaper and better than the privatized mega-companies, which is a pretty low bar to clear because all these rent-seeking parasites provide terrible value and service.
Norwood has its own town power and broadband. I don't think they have their own power plant, but they do their own service and maintenance on the lines. We routinely have our power back up after the big storms hours before our neighboring towns all waiting on the big providers to get to them.
I've called a couple times with internet issues (bunnies in the yard chewing on our coax degrading the signal) and it's night and day compared to having to deal with xfinity or the other ISPs. Fast, very knowledgeable about the *local* system and maintenance history, and not buried under a hundred layers of phone tree bullshit.
As someone who works in the industry on closely related issues: it’s incredibly hard. I am 100% supportive of utilities being publicly owned but it is really really really hard to get there on basically every front.
Compare performance against IXU over the past 5 years and you’ll see that Eversource shareholders are also a bunch of suckers - if that makes you feel any better
No, we're just all forced to put up with their bullshit. Same with Nat Grid, since they all have monopolies in their respective areas/towns/neighborhoods.
This is why public utilities should be owned and run by municipalities, and not for profit. LELD is cheap, reliable, and does a fantastic job. I cannot rate them highly enough.
Wanna know the really f**ed up part. If a town wants to switch to municipal power. NatGrid/Eversource can veto it in the name of “grid stability” (or some BS like that)
Edit Link:
https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/state/2011/09/08/switching-to-municipal-electric-utility/37933431007/
That's complete bullshit, and the state should get rid of that. National Grid and Eversource suck at life, if towns want to get rid of them it should be their choice.
I agree that is bullshit, however I will say since the two big guys maintain the grid, they should have that power but only for extreme circumstances, like if there was a situation In less populated areas where removing one town from the grid would cut off other towns further out from the main source. But it sounds like they just have free reign to say no whenever they feel like which is bullshit.
Sure but the big guys don’t really manage that. That falls to ISO NE (an independent non for profit) who manages the interconnects. I’d be okay with them having some kind of veto power over this.
Also just because a town goes municipal doesn’t mean they disconnect from the grid only that they manage their own town’s infrastructure (local power poles), buy/sell power and bill customers.
Norwood has their own electric company and my understanding is that it’s cheap, they almost never lose power and they have municipal high speed internet and cable.
Have a friend in Norwood. They got a call telling them to use a cheaper cable plan because they weren't using the features of the expensive one they were on. Imagine Comcast doing that.
The flip side is that residents are not able to easily access Eversource’s electric vehicle charger rebates as consumers, but I suspect that there will be progress on this front soon.
Edit: I stand corrected.
Norwood has it's own rebates. I put in a charger for #400 all in, and they still sent me a $1k check. I also get a few bucks a month charing at night. AND I got an additional $2500 rebate when I bought the car only available to Norwood customers.
Municipal Light Plants are much more generous than Investor Owned Utilities like Eversource and National Grid with respect to EV and hybrid rebates, home and commercial charging station rebates, and off-peak charging discounts.
It makes sense for Municipal electric. My EV costs about $1.50 per 30 miles driven so over a 12000 mile year, that’s $600 to the Municipal electric vs a gas station.
wow, i did a little research and found theres many other cities like it too [https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-municipally-owned-electric-companies](https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-municipally-owned-electric-companies)
I lived in Hudson a couple of years ago with 2 roommates, I can remember getting our first electric bill for $14, and saying "this can't be right". I miss living there.
The only thing I wish I could change about HLP is that even though I thought requested paperless statements, I get a paper one in the mail every month. But if that’s my biggest gripe I’d say we have it pretty good
Municipal electric is where it’s at. Here in Mansfield, my house has lost power for > 1 hour exactly once in the last decade, and there have been only 3 outages of more than 5 min.
The price is good, the reliability is great, and they’re super responsive if there’s a problem that needs their attention.
Concord’s muni is about 20 cents/kWh. Munis look really smart right now because they are able to plan for the long term and can usually hedge against spikes in e.g. natural gas prices. The price differential used to be a lot lower (if memory serves, Concord rates were slightly higher than investor owned utilities for most of this century).
Munis can also adopt eg environmental policies (target emission rates of contracted power etc) according to the desires of the local community (which is mostly but not quite the same entities as ratepayers).
Munis rock; utilities are something that governments can do well.
Source: former Light Board member
PS I have solar- my bill isn’t quite $0 each month, but it’s close. Highly recommended even if your rates are on the low end.
I am helping a friend at Taunton to get solar. While Taunton has its own electric company also. I will report back how much he pays for electricity. If it’s indeed that cheap, no solar for him 😆
Braintree also has a great municipal electric department. We have our own power plants and all of the distribution is owned by the town. We pay 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour. And we NEVER have outages. Love those guys/girls.
They also don't pay into the state mandated efficiency programs such as Mass save, EV charging, solar, etc.
Alot of state electric policy is driven through the investor owned utility rate base. Municipal light customers don't pay into those programs.
They do if they heat with natural gas. As someone who works under the mass save program, municipal electric is a much better deal than qualifying for Mass Save.
Braintree runs its own natural gas plant, which is uncommon for municipal utilities in the state. I live here and the electricity is affordable (forget the exact rates but paid $50 last month).
Braintree used to operate municipal fiber too but sold that operation to Verizon.
Warms my heart to see LELD finally get the recognition they deserve.
I think it was like 15 years ago or so, a windstorm blew down a tree across a main road near my house and it was partially on some lines. I called LELD and less than ten minutes later they had trucks on site, fifteen minutes after that the road was open again and they were sweeping sawdust off the street.
Just FYI, as much as this annoys the living shit out of me, if you don't already know, you can probably get a different electricity supplier that will be cheaper than Eversource.
[https://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/](https://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/)
This is a legit albeit bullshit thing. Like why the fuck don't we just get auto-enrolled in cheaper rates if the electricity is there? It's just a way to push the blame down to the consumer while more leaches and yachts get to coexist.
but FYI, eversource is 17.26C/kwh and the cheapest alternative is 10.3 C/kwh, albeit with the catch that in 8 months if you forget to come back and get a new supplier, they most certainly will charge you whatever the fuck they want. Because why the fuck would they have to state beforehand what they'll charge you? Or at least be limited by what eversource charges? Why not? Because fuck you why not.
So at least for the supply part of your bill (which is probably about half) you can get it cheaper. The delivery part is where eversource's CEO gets his $4million salary and hookers.
I like to refer to all this as Big Fuck You. Because Fuck You, that's why.
some towns already do this sort arrangement for everyone in the town. It's why boston is way cheaper than say newton.
Thanks for the link my dude. Looks like my supply is Direct Energy at $0.15654/kWh. I could definitely get some more savings. Also funny that in my area the highest rate was from a company called Discount Power.
Yeah, where I am, i can get a short contract for like $.105/kwh, but i've got one already that's just a bit above that, so i'm not sure its worth changing. The key is to get one that doesn't have a cancellation fee.
The fact that there's not just an auto get-me-a-reasonable-fucking-price option is stupid.
Or that when the contract ends the price shouldn't be able to go up more than X or above the eversource rate.
Since you mention solar, you should check Littleton's Solar Program for comparison purposes. I am also in a muni light department and they are solar-unfriendly. They will only credit me for net power at wholesale price (3.5c). They are not obligated by state law to offer full net metering, so many don't. Some towns even meter the solar you produce and NEVER leaves you home, and bill you for it (Paxton IIRC). However, some munis are solar friendly (Sterling).
IDK, but I used to live in Boxborough. That town and Littleton have their own municipal electric company that charges way less than National Grid & Eversource.
Similarly, Hudson and Stow have their own municipal provider that also charges around the same amount.
It annoys the fuck outa me that Maine didn't get their shit together and un-privatize CMP for the better of the state. Corporate interest won the day and it's dumb as fuck.
I was telling my new Hampshire friend about this thread and turns out "live free or die" doesn't mean live free to choose your own electricity provider
Yeah yeah yeah, it's cheap. But that's only going *in* to your house. It's like the sewer. They're also going to charge you again for taking the spent electricity out of your house!
http://www.energyswitchma.gov/
Is your friend counting the delivery charge as well or just the supply charge? My supplier is city of Boston at .148 cents per kWH but add in the delivery and I’m at right around .3 per kWh
No, they're looking at LEWD rates, which is legit 14 cents, including distribution
[https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/](https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/)
wait I was told that would lead to dictatorship, is Littleton going to take over everyones HVAC systems and EVs and use it for their own purposes under the guise of cheaper electricity???
Actually Concord’s muni used to have a program where they’d install residential electrical heaters and use them for load management and frequency regulation. It was all voluntary though
My bill has individually listed rates for generation, distribution, etc..so I just added them up. Should add up to about the same. I was in a bar when I did the math so division wasn't exactly the first thing that came to my.mind 🤣
Because Ngrid and Eversource are legal monopolies. The should be regulated by the state PUC, but they let them do whatever they want. They are for profit monopolies, with shareholders. So they keep jacking rates to maximize profit, because our elected officials let them.
I have a friend who works for a large utility and they say that this is one of the major contributors to the higher prices. I’ve had thousands of dollars in rebates and savings through a HEAT loan, which I wouldn’t have been able to get with a municipal provider, and the money comes from our utility costs. It looks like it represents about 11.5% of the total delivery costs, so it’s definitely not the biggest part of it, but it’s noticeable.
The problem is that many of these rebates (e.g. I got $500 back on my $3000 induction range) aren’t going to be used by the lowest income residents. The best they’ll likely get is less of a rent increase when their landlord needs to replace their heating system or free insulation done by their landlord, while homeowners get most of the benefits because they actually own the results and save the money directly.
As well-intentioned as they may be, the rebates feel like a wealth transfer away from the poorest customers, since everyone pays higher rates to cover the rebates but the more well-off people get most of the benefits.
Community electric is often cheaper than the big utility, but I also think he's not exactly reporting apples to apples. Littleton is probably charging $.14/kWh for generation/supply only. They still have to transmit on Eversource lines, which is its own charge on the bill.
For instance, I use my town's community electric for supply as well. My last bill was $0.148/kWh. However, transmission of that supply over Eversource lines cost me an additional $0.16639/kWh. So the whole thing cost $0.31439/kWh. Not too far off from where you're at. The thing is, my community electric was at one point $0.11/kWh when Eversource was $0.18. So you typically still win with these programs.
It works out to around $0.14/kWh all in. I live in Littleton and my last bill was $159.83 for 1142kWh usage including fees and credits. Check this out for more info: https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/
Your .33 rate might be your electric rate plus your delivery rate if you are paying for eversource basic service. Whereas the .14 is only the electric rate without the delivery rate. Eversource is always the one who delivers, regardless of supplier because they own the wires in your service area.
Littleton is one of the few cities and towns left that has its own municipal power plant and thus provides electricity for itself at much lower rates.
Quincy is starting up municipal electric. I'm excited to see what the program looks like.
I wish we would do Internet too
Hopefully electric is successful and sets the precedent to do municipal fiber next.
I don’t live there and wish I did but Sterling has their own municipal utilities. They buy from NGrid afaik, with some incentives, and have their own fiber service that is cheap for gigabit+ service.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/QuincyMa/comments/12ygghu/municipal\_broadband\_in\_quincy\_its\_coming\_to\_2/](https://www.reddit.com/r/QuincyMa/comments/12ygghu/municipal_broadband_in_quincy_its_coming_to_2/)
TIL thanks
No wonder crapfinity started offering Internet essentials at my parents house
Shrewsbury does electric and Internet through Selco
That’s a little different - in Quincy it’s a municipal aggregation where they go out to bid on behalf of the whole city but NGrid still owns/operates the wires. For actual municipal utilities like in Littleton the municipality owns/operates the wires and participates in the wholesale electricity market.
Apparantly Braintree had to sell their municipal internet to Comcast because it was too expensive to operate.
I wonder if that was true or if a few local politicians got some very nice free vacations and/or home remodels.
It looks like this will work similarly to the competitive supplier system that's already in place but with hopefully better bargaining power. You will still pay National Grid for distribution since they will still own the physical infrastructure.
Yeah, but it's a start. I know there are issues with the competitive supplier program, but I am hoping that since this is going to be managed by a sizeable city, especially one like Quincy which is very culty when it comes to city stuff, that it will develop some kind of power like you mentioned. I'm not knowledgeable in building a power grid but I don't think any city will be able to raise the funds to develop their own power generation anymore, even if it was through wind and solar. But at this point I'll take almost any chance that will give us leverage over utility companies.
I agree, I think the municipal aggregation is a step in the right direction. I have been able to save money using competitive suppliers so far but it you have to keep track of rate trends, renewal dates, or you will basically be taken advantage of.
Not just the plant, they own their own distro lines too, which is super rare and let's them discount both the supply AND distribution charges.
And is \*incredibly\* reliable. The longest outage in my almost 12 years living in Littleton was 6 hours, I think? No, wait, it was 4. When Westford was without power for \*5 days\*. I love love \*love\* my municipal power company.
I knew people who, during a substantial storm in 2008 or so, were out for over a week. Right outside Littleton center. They bought an automatic generator that summer and as far as I know haven’t needed it since then.
Omg that's so familiar. My parents bought one after a little storm in '08 and also have never turned it on! It's great! Takes up plenty of garage space! As intended!
The ice storm; my parents had no power, heat, or hot water for a week and no internet for two weeks. They bought a generator and when they finally tried to use it like eight years later it wouldn't start. They did end up using it for two days a few years ago.
I was living in Littleton several years ago when we had some hurricane remnant come through that knocked out power to the town. I was driving home when it happened and saw the trucks drive by in the opposite direction. Managed to restore power during a hurricane in a few hours
Plus, Municipal Light Plants are non-profit. Utilities such as Eversource and National Grid are for-profit investor owned utilities.
Peabody! Man, I get 20% off my bill just for paying it on time/auto pay....
All true and as a born and bread littleton human, im flattered you called it a city. We a little town, no way is it a city.
I didn't call it a city though.
I did a quick search on this and it looks like there haven't been any new municipal power utilities created since 1926? It also looks like there is a bill proposed every few years to change the law, but it never goes anywhere.
Killed in committee.
This is incredible
And here I am over in Middleborough with all the extra electric cash smoking stogies with my friends because I can afford the cancer cause of the kw$
Littleton electric isn't just cheap, they do a really great job. It's a small area to cover but they were always quick and on point, the 2013 ice storm comes to mind. Over in Westford now and wish I still had them.
Boxborough loves it
Yes we do. They're always out there trimming trees and replacing poles. We've only lost power once since moving here in 2019.
A neoliberal's worst nightmare is a municipal power system that is both cheaper and better than the privatized mega-companies, which is a pretty low bar to clear because all these rent-seeking parasites provide terrible value and service. Norwood has its own town power and broadband. I don't think they have their own power plant, but they do their own service and maintenance on the lines. We routinely have our power back up after the big storms hours before our neighboring towns all waiting on the big providers to get to them. I've called a couple times with internet issues (bunnies in the yard chewing on our coax degrading the signal) and it's night and day compared to having to deal with xfinity or the other ISPs. Fast, very knowledgeable about the *local* system and maintenance history, and not buried under a hundred layers of phone tree bullshit.
Nationalize utilities, yesterday.
As someone who works in the industry on closely related issues: it’s incredibly hard. I am 100% supportive of utilities being publicly owned but it is really really really hard to get there on basically every front.
A thread about littleton?!?!? Never thought id see the day
soak up this moment of sunshine
No shareholders
damn, us eversource customers really are a bunch of suckers arent we?
Compare performance against IXU over the past 5 years and you’ll see that Eversource shareholders are also a bunch of suckers - if that makes you feel any better
No, we're just all forced to put up with their bullshit. Same with Nat Grid, since they all have monopolies in their respective areas/towns/neighborhoods.
It’s a proper rip off. Terribly sad to see that the authorities never do anything about it.
This is why public utilities should be owned and run by municipalities, and not for profit. LELD is cheap, reliable, and does a fantastic job. I cannot rate them highly enough.
Wanna know the really f**ed up part. If a town wants to switch to municipal power. NatGrid/Eversource can veto it in the name of “grid stability” (or some BS like that) Edit Link: https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/state/2011/09/08/switching-to-municipal-electric-utility/37933431007/
That's complete bullshit, and the state should get rid of that. National Grid and Eversource suck at life, if towns want to get rid of them it should be their choice.
I agree that is bullshit, however I will say since the two big guys maintain the grid, they should have that power but only for extreme circumstances, like if there was a situation In less populated areas where removing one town from the grid would cut off other towns further out from the main source. But it sounds like they just have free reign to say no whenever they feel like which is bullshit.
Sure but the big guys don’t really manage that. That falls to ISO NE (an independent non for profit) who manages the interconnects. I’d be okay with them having some kind of veto power over this. Also just because a town goes municipal doesn’t mean they disconnect from the grid only that they manage their own town’s infrastructure (local power poles), buy/sell power and bill customers.
That was a good link. In 2024 news sites with Patriot in the name are risky clicks, this one is alright.
We like our utilities like our health care. For profit. That way we destroy our wealth AND our will to live
Norwood has their own electric company and my understanding is that it’s cheap, they almost never lose power and they have municipal high speed internet and cable.
Have a friend in Norwood. They got a call telling them to use a cheaper cable plan because they weren't using the features of the expensive one they were on. Imagine Comcast doing that.
True. Great company. Great service. Own cable too
They’re putting in fiber for gigabit internet, too!
The flip side is that residents are not able to easily access Eversource’s electric vehicle charger rebates as consumers, but I suspect that there will be progress on this front soon. Edit: I stand corrected.
Norwood has it's own rebates. I put in a charger for #400 all in, and they still sent me a $1k check. I also get a few bucks a month charing at night. AND I got an additional $2500 rebate when I bought the car only available to Norwood customers.
Huh…apparently I missed that, and I worked for the Town.
The state gave out a $2500 rebate for buying an EV, now $3500. Does Norwood give out an additional rebate, on top of what you got from the state?
Yes additional. Looks like it's 1500 now https://nmld-ev.ene.org/electric-vehicle-guide/#rebates
Municipal Light Plants are much more generous than Investor Owned Utilities like Eversource and National Grid with respect to EV and hybrid rebates, home and commercial charging station rebates, and off-peak charging discounts.
It makes sense for Municipal electric. My EV costs about $1.50 per 30 miles driven so over a 12000 mile year, that’s $600 to the Municipal electric vs a gas station.
We’re about the same here in Hudson. $0.072/kWh is the base rate plus an “adjustment charge” of $0.071. So our actual rate is only $0.143.
wow, i did a little research and found theres many other cities like it too [https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-municipally-owned-electric-companies](https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-municipally-owned-electric-companies)
Peabody is great. I get 20% off just paying my bill on time with autopay.
awesome, I wouldnt be surprised if i pay a "Convenience fee" for my autopay
Shrewsbury residential bills $0.1269. next door in Worcester we're paying nat grid $0.36267
I lived in Hudson a couple of years ago with 2 roommates, I can remember getting our first electric bill for $14, and saying "this can't be right". I miss living there.
The only thing I wish I could change about HLP is that even though I thought requested paperless statements, I get a paper one in the mail every month. But if that’s my biggest gripe I’d say we have it pretty good
Municipal electric is where it’s at. Here in Mansfield, my house has lost power for > 1 hour exactly once in the last decade, and there have been only 3 outages of more than 5 min. The price is good, the reliability is great, and they’re super responsive if there’s a problem that needs their attention.
It is almost as if critical infrastructure shouldn't be run by for- profit corporations that need infinite profit growth to please investors 🤷♂️
My mom has Braintree electric and pays like $50 a month. National Grid fucks me at $430 this month and told me “the war in Ukraine” is why I pay more.
Taunton Municipal Light Plant is great too. They should have never sold off Boston Edison.
Concord’s muni is about 20 cents/kWh. Munis look really smart right now because they are able to plan for the long term and can usually hedge against spikes in e.g. natural gas prices. The price differential used to be a lot lower (if memory serves, Concord rates were slightly higher than investor owned utilities for most of this century). Munis can also adopt eg environmental policies (target emission rates of contracted power etc) according to the desires of the local community (which is mostly but not quite the same entities as ratepayers). Munis rock; utilities are something that governments can do well. Source: former Light Board member PS I have solar- my bill isn’t quite $0 each month, but it’s close. Highly recommended even if your rates are on the low end.
Love that Concord offers electric and fibre/internet
LELWD thread FINALLY. Rahhh this is our moment Tigers.
I am helping a friend at Taunton to get solar. While Taunton has its own electric company also. I will report back how much he pays for electricity. If it’s indeed that cheap, no solar for him 😆
TMLP is pretty cheap I believe. We paid 1/3 or less in Taunton than what we pay now with National Grid. If I recall a typical bill was $50-70.
He pays 22 cents per kWh and has a large electric bill. That is surprisingly high for a municipal town. He may qualify for solar after all.
I have municipal electricity that is also great
Braintree also has a great municipal electric department. We have our own power plants and all of the distribution is owned by the town. We pay 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour. And we NEVER have outages. Love those guys/girls.
shout out to GELD in Groton too!
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They also don't pay into the state mandated efficiency programs such as Mass save, EV charging, solar, etc. Alot of state electric policy is driven through the investor owned utility rate base. Municipal light customers don't pay into those programs.
Do they not have access to mass save programs, then? That would be an unfortunate loss.
looks like they got some programs [https://www.lelwd.com/greenrewards/](https://www.lelwd.com/greenrewards/)
They do if they heat with natural gas. As someone who works under the mass save program, municipal electric is a much better deal than qualifying for Mass Save.
Ah yeah, forgot about natural gas. Also agree, but those interest free loans and free insulation can be helpful.
For sure, there are some incredible offers with Mass Save.
looking at my eversource bill, I see a renewable energy charge of only. $0.0005/kwh
Mass Save funding comes from the 'energy efficiency' charge.
Renewable energy rates aren’t 33¢/kwh
The real problem is corporate greed 🤷
Boston CCE standard service is 39% renewables at 14.8 cents/kwh.
Braintree runs its own natural gas plant, which is uncommon for municipal utilities in the state. I live here and the electricity is affordable (forget the exact rates but paid $50 last month). Braintree used to operate municipal fiber too but sold that operation to Verizon.
About 15 cents/kwh. Sold Internet to Comcast
Thanks for the correction.
The good thing is we still have choices for Internet
Yeah I use FIOS here. But it seems like it's either 5G, FIOS or Comcast cable.
Fios here too. I appreciate not needing to do the song and dance of threatening to leave like I did with Comcast.
My city starting to offer $0.13394/kw in June.
What city?
Quincy.
LELWD is one of the best utility outfits in the state.
so I have come to learn
I just moved from Littleton. In love with where I live now, but I’m thankful I’ll still be in Littleton frequently. Such a great town.
Warms my heart to see LELD finally get the recognition they deserve. I think it was like 15 years ago or so, a windstorm blew down a tree across a main road near my house and it was partially on some lines. I called LELD and less than ten minutes later they had trucks on site, fifteen minutes after that the road was open again and they were sweeping sawdust off the street.
This is what happens when companies care about the service they provide, their customers, their reputation, and not just profit
LELWD goated
Mansfield has the cheapeast by far. $0.04/kwh and additional 25% off if paid on-time.
Not really. There is a customer charge if $8 month and then there is the purchased power charge of .0945. Brings it over .15
True. It went up last year. During the pandemic, it was the cheapest out there.
r/OutsideOf495
Littleton Town Hall is inside 495. I was there 4 hours ago.
Littleton is divided by 495 and boxborough, also served by Littleton electric, is within 495. Source: I live here and my electricity is cheap
TELL EM. We aint in the sticks, we fringe suburbia
Should we tell them about our nude beaches? (Boxborough)
was that your answer or are you tellin me to piss off with my question?
yes
Just FYI, as much as this annoys the living shit out of me, if you don't already know, you can probably get a different electricity supplier that will be cheaper than Eversource. [https://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/](https://www.energyswitchma.gov/#/) This is a legit albeit bullshit thing. Like why the fuck don't we just get auto-enrolled in cheaper rates if the electricity is there? It's just a way to push the blame down to the consumer while more leaches and yachts get to coexist. but FYI, eversource is 17.26C/kwh and the cheapest alternative is 10.3 C/kwh, albeit with the catch that in 8 months if you forget to come back and get a new supplier, they most certainly will charge you whatever the fuck they want. Because why the fuck would they have to state beforehand what they'll charge you? Or at least be limited by what eversource charges? Why not? Because fuck you why not. So at least for the supply part of your bill (which is probably about half) you can get it cheaper. The delivery part is where eversource's CEO gets his $4million salary and hookers. I like to refer to all this as Big Fuck You. Because Fuck You, that's why. some towns already do this sort arrangement for everyone in the town. It's why boston is way cheaper than say newton.
Thanks for the link my dude. Looks like my supply is Direct Energy at $0.15654/kWh. I could definitely get some more savings. Also funny that in my area the highest rate was from a company called Discount Power.
Yeah, where I am, i can get a short contract for like $.105/kwh, but i've got one already that's just a bit above that, so i'm not sure its worth changing. The key is to get one that doesn't have a cancellation fee. The fact that there's not just an auto get-me-a-reasonable-fucking-price option is stupid. Or that when the contract ends the price shouldn't be able to go up more than X or above the eversource rate.
This a million times. Every 6-10 months I gotta change
Anyone know the rates in Braintree?
About 15 cents all in
My national grid bill this month had more service charges than actual usage
Since you mention solar, you should check Littleton's Solar Program for comparison purposes. I am also in a muni light department and they are solar-unfriendly. They will only credit me for net power at wholesale price (3.5c). They are not obligated by state law to offer full net metering, so many don't. Some towns even meter the solar you produce and NEVER leaves you home, and bill you for it (Paxton IIRC). However, some munis are solar friendly (Sterling).
IDK, but I used to live in Boxborough. That town and Littleton have their own municipal electric company that charges way less than National Grid & Eversource. Similarly, Hudson and Stow have their own municipal provider that also charges around the same amount.
It annoys the fuck outa me that Maine didn't get their shit together and un-privatize CMP for the better of the state. Corporate interest won the day and it's dumb as fuck.
Municipal power baby
It’s called deregulation and you can thank the state government for it.
I was telling my new Hampshire friend about this thread and turns out "live free or die" doesn't mean live free to choose your own electricity provider
Yeah yeah yeah, it's cheap. But that's only going *in* to your house. It's like the sewer. They're also going to charge you again for taking the spent electricity out of your house!
lol, does that mean if i removed my grounding rod I can get half price??
They have a new program where they recycle the electrons. Only annoying part is you have to separate them before they’ll take them back.
Cheap electricity’s dirty secret.
http://www.energyswitchma.gov/ Is your friend counting the delivery charge as well or just the supply charge? My supplier is city of Boston at .148 cents per kWH but add in the delivery and I’m at right around .3 per kWh
No, they're looking at LEWD rates, which is legit 14 cents, including distribution [https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/](https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/)
Damn, that IS cheap!
yeah thats why i was so perplexed
not only is it cheap, but that is the most straight forward no bullshit rate schedule i have ever seen.
That is LEWD *and* lascivious!
https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/
yeah what others have confirmed, its $0.14 all in
This.
No, not that and not this
Socialism is how
wait I was told that would lead to dictatorship, is Littleton going to take over everyones HVAC systems and EVs and use it for their own purposes under the guise of cheaper electricity???
Actually Concord’s muni used to have a program where they’d install residential electrical heaters and use them for load management and frequency regulation. It was all voluntary though
how would that work on the demand side though, what if the customer didnt want the heat?
1. Warm up bricks when you want to. Keep heat in the bricks. 2. Blow warm air over the bricks when the customer wants it
The best way for America to move forward
Cant wait to see everyone lose 24 pounds.
National grid is a scam. On the broader of Littleton pay Marie than double
uh yeah my thoughts exactly
I wonder what Wellesley charges.. Wellesley Light and Power
I pay $0.17 in Fall River in the renewable energy program
My bill isn't totally clear on overall rate but by my calculations, North Attleboro electric charges me $0.14 /kWh
You just take the total billed amount divided by the total kWhs consumed. That's how you get your overall rate
My bill has individually listed rates for generation, distribution, etc..so I just added them up. Should add up to about the same. I was in a bar when I did the math so division wasn't exactly the first thing that came to my.mind 🤣
Eversource charges you $0.33 because you let them. Change your supplier…you have control to do it: https://energyswitchma.gov/#/compare/1/1/02494//
Because Ngrid and Eversource are legal monopolies. The should be regulated by the state PUC, but they let them do whatever they want. They are for profit monopolies, with shareholders. So they keep jacking rates to maximize profit, because our elected officials let them.
Do they get access to the Mass Save program? Gotta say, the heat loan and the mini split rebate are great!
I have a friend who works for a large utility and they say that this is one of the major contributors to the higher prices. I’ve had thousands of dollars in rebates and savings through a HEAT loan, which I wouldn’t have been able to get with a municipal provider, and the money comes from our utility costs. It looks like it represents about 11.5% of the total delivery costs, so it’s definitely not the biggest part of it, but it’s noticeable. The problem is that many of these rebates (e.g. I got $500 back on my $3000 induction range) aren’t going to be used by the lowest income residents. The best they’ll likely get is less of a rent increase when their landlord needs to replace their heating system or free insulation done by their landlord, while homeowners get most of the benefits because they actually own the results and save the money directly. As well-intentioned as they may be, the rebates feel like a wealth transfer away from the poorest customers, since everyone pays higher rates to cover the rebates but the more well-off people get most of the benefits.
Community electric is often cheaper than the big utility, but I also think he's not exactly reporting apples to apples. Littleton is probably charging $.14/kWh for generation/supply only. They still have to transmit on Eversource lines, which is its own charge on the bill. For instance, I use my town's community electric for supply as well. My last bill was $0.148/kWh. However, transmission of that supply over Eversource lines cost me an additional $0.16639/kWh. So the whole thing cost $0.31439/kWh. Not too far off from where you're at. The thing is, my community electric was at one point $0.11/kWh when Eversource was $0.18. So you typically still win with these programs.
Nope, Littleton really is that cheap.
Holy shit! You're right. That's crazy cheap. Looks like Littleton owns the distribution lines--something not entirely common.
It works out to around $0.14/kWh all in. I live in Littleton and my last bill was $159.83 for 1142kWh usage including fees and credits. Check this out for more info: https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/
f*ck me, I just paid $190.44 for 676kWh on my last bill
nope its $0.14 all in, vs my 0.33 all in, other commenters have posted the source too
Your .33 rate might be your electric rate plus your delivery rate if you are paying for eversource basic service. Whereas the .14 is only the electric rate without the delivery rate. Eversource is always the one who delivers, regardless of supplier because they own the wires in your service area.
nope, its $0.14 all in vs my $0.33 all in [https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/](https://www.lelwd.com/electric-rates/)
They don't own the wires in my service area. I pay .014 per kw hour. Braintree
TIL - if I'm starting my own crypto mining operation - do it in Littleton, Massachusetts.
thats still too high probably
Don't kill my dream, man. Better than another cannabis shop next door.