Eversource applauds Massachusetts regulators’ $500M-reduction in Mass Save plan

Published on March 04, 2025 by Kim Riley

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The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued an order Feb. 28 directing a $500 million reduction in the three-year proposed Massachusetts 2025-2027 Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization Plan total budget to protect ratepayers from excessive bill impacts.

“The responsibility of weighing the bill impacts of these three‑year plans rests squarely with the department and we take our responsibility as the stewards of ratepayer funds seriously,” said the DPU.

Penni Conner, executive vice president of customer experience and energy strategy at Eversource, commended the DUP for listening to customer concerns about affordability and taking action to order the reduction in the proposed plan.

“This is the most immediate step the state can take to provide long-term rate relief to customers and ensure that the pace of the energy transition in Massachusetts is affordable and attainable,” Conner said.

Specifically, the DPU approved recommended enhancements of Mass Save, the nation-leading energy efficiency program available to residents and businesses operating in the state. Over the past 15 years, Mass Save has helped customers save 18 million megawatt-hours of annual electricity consumption that the department says have led to lower energy bills on average.

Even with the budget reduction, the DPU said that Mass Save will continue to provide customers with billions in savings and benefits each year by supporting improvements to homes and businesses, including energy efficient heating systems and appliances, as well as low-cost weatherization.

“We are steadfastly committed to the Mass Save programs, which are essential to meeting the commonwealth’s decarbonization goals and provide significant benefits to customers and the state as a whole, but this winter’s higher-than-normal natural gas bills make a revision to this plan imperative at this time,” said Conner at Eversource, which transmits and delivers electricity and natural gas and supplies water to 1.8 million customers throughout Massachusetts.

“At the same time, this winter’s bills have posed serious challenges and concerns for our customers that reinforce the critical need to maintain affordability and reliability as top priorities in our collective pursuit of the commonwealth’s energy transition,” she added. “We will be closely reviewing this order with those priorities top-of-mind as we work collaboratively to develop a revised plan that best serves all customers and communities.”

The DPU said it required the program administrators to work with the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council and the legislature to find alternative sources of funding for decarbonization measures so that Mass Save programs do not solely rely on funding provided by ratepayers.

The reduction from the DPU for the Mass Save 2025-2027 plan would lower total residential program budgets by 25 percent for gas and 15 percent for electric. The decrease will vary by utility provider, as the utilities must work together to reduce the total budget of Mass Save, says the order, and each utility budgets for their own programs that are then collectively proposed in the total budget for the three-year plan.

According to the DPU, the budget cut means that the energy efficiency surcharge will be reduced on future residential customer bills. The surcharge is listed on electric bills but currently is part of the delivery fee on gas bills. To provide more transparency for all gas customers on the components that make up their bills, the DPU directed each gas company to list the energy efficiency surcharge as a separate line item on bills going forward.

As the program administrators of Mass Save, the utilities collaborate with the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council and stakeholders every three years to develop energy efficiency proposals that help to reduce use and demand so that customers have lower energy bills. The program administrators also must craft strategies and investments to ensure that equitable access is available to all energy efficiency programs, especially for vulnerable and historically underserved communities.

“This is how the collaborative process is intended to work – a wide variety of diverse stakeholders come together to develop a plan aimed at achieving Massachusetts’ ambitious clean energy targets, and that plan then receives a thorough regulatory review to ensure all aspects of the program respond to customer needs and strike a balance between meeting statewide climate goals, establishing program affordability, providing robust access for customers, and enhancing reliability,” said Conner.

She noted that Eversource appreciates the collaboration of the wide variety of diverse stakeholders on the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council who unanimously supported the company’s proposed plan, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, the Attorney General’s Office, and other community, business, and labor stakeholders who provided input through the process.

“We look forward to our continued work together to deliver the nation-leading energy efficiency programs that reflect our broad support of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and advance electrification while also driving down energy usage for customers,” Conner said.

Gas bill relief

On Feb. 28, the DPU also approved immediate reductions in gas bills for residential customers in response to the gas companies’ filed proposals to provide customers relief from their bills for March and April. The reduction will apply to the gas supply used in March that customers will be billed for in April.

Additionally, the DPU extended the service shut-off moratorium from March 15 to April 1 to provide added relief to customers.

The shut-off moratorium applies to customers of the investor-owned electric, gas, and water companies regulated by the DPU that cannot shut off service to homes experiencing financial hardship.

The extension of the shut-off moratorium provides additional protection for customers who may have trouble paying their utility bills, according to the DPU.

Generally, Conner said Eversource is confident it can keep the commonwealth at the national forefront of energy efficiency and decarbonization with a revised plan.

“Moving forward, we’re as committed as ever to the collaboration and hard work that will be required to provide impactful, long-term rate relief to customers while also advancing a clean energy future that addresses climate change,” she said. “Energy efficiency is just one of many important pieces on that broader path to decarbonization, and collective buy-in is essential for the various solutions that will be needed to achieve our shared goals, including addressing the region’s energy supply challenges.”

Along with a 10-percent reduction to the total bill through the local distribution adjustment charge that Eversource proposed earlier this week, customers will begin seeing lower rates effective March 1. Total estimated bill impacts through the off-peak months for customers as a result of these adjustments are not yet available and will be provided in upcoming regulatory filings, the company said.