Basic Service classes and what EnergySwitchMA actually compares
If you do not buy a competitive-supply product, you are on Basic Service from Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil. The DPU page at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/basic-service-information-and-rates is the official description of that default. It is a pass-through commodity the electric company procures; the company does not keep a Basic Service profit.
Small commercial accounts are placed on a six-month fixed Basic Service option unless you ask the electric company for monthly pricing. Medium and large C&I accounts are placed on monthly variable Basic Service unless you ask for the three-month fixed option. A laundromat that added demand-heavy equipment can change which of those clocks applies. Do not shop a monthly medium-C&I default as if it were a six-month small-C&I posting.
Competitive suppliers offer fixed-price products that hold for a stated term and variable-price products that can move monthly at the supplier’s discretion or on a published index. DPU licenses the supplier; DPU does not regulate how that supplier sets the product price. EnergySwitchMA.com is the Commission-developed shopper for those products, not a guarantee that any listing beats Basic Service.
Billing is either consolidated—one Eversource or National Grid invoice that forwards the supply portion to the supplier—or dual, with a second invoice from the supplier. Most smaller users see consolidated bills. A dual-bill laundry needs a process so the night attendant does not treat the supplier invoice as a delivery past-due that could affect the wires.
Renewable content above the statutory RPS, smart-thermostat add-ons, and gift-card promotions appear in DPU’s competitive-supply overview at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/competitive-electric-supply-product-overview. Those extras are product attributes. They are not a substitute for matching the supplier’s class and billing election to the meter on the wall.
Gas commodity on National Grid and Eversource, with thin participation
Electric choice on an investor-owned meter does not automatically create a deep gas-marketer market for dryer therms. Gas choice exists on participating National Grid and Eversource gas systems, but state materials and industry practice treat participation as limited compared with the electric EnergySwitchMA aisle. Confirm whether your gas account is even eligible before you issue a dual-fuel RFP.
The LDC still owns the main, still delivers therms, and still answers odor and leak calls after a marketer switch. A supplier that sells gas commodity is not the company that isolates a dryer-room leak. Keep the LDC emergency number on the same staff card as the electric-company outage line.
DOER publishes electric and gas customer-choice data for the non-municipal companies. That dataset is a statewide activity log, not a forecast that your dryer meter will attract three serious bids. If the marketer list for your LDC is short, document the constraint.
Municipal gas departments that travel with some MLPs—Holyoke Gas & Electric is the usual example—are a different legal world from National Grid gas. If the gas bill is municipal, do not import an EnergySwitchMA electric conversation onto the therms.
Eversource, National Grid, Unitil, and the MLP exclusion map
Boston and much of the eastern urban core sit on Eversource’s NSTAR legacy electric company. Springfield and other western territories sit on Eversource’s WMECO legacy company. Those are both Eversource Basic Service, but they are not the same posted procurement file. Worcester, Lowell, and large stretches of central and northern territory sit on National Grid. Unitil and Fitchburg Gas & Electric cover smaller pockets.
Municipal light plants are the hard stop. Mass.gov lists forty-one communities that established MLPs serving all or part of fifty municipalities, including Belmont, Braintree, Concord, Norwood, Reading, Shrewsbury, Taunton, Wellesley, and Westfield. The MLP provides both distribution and supply. EnergySwitchMA and individual competitive supply do not apply on those meters.
A store in an MLP town that borders an Eversource or National Grid street can look “Boston-adjacent” and still be ineligible. Reading Municipal Light Plant serving Wilmington or North Reading is the kind of fringe that fools a ZIP-code quote. Read the bill’s company name before you open EnergySwitchMA.
Community choice electricity aggregation in an investor-owned town is a third path: the municipality buys supply on behalf of residents and businesses with a voluntary opt-out. Aggregation is not an MLP, and it is not an individual EnergySwitchMA contract. Check whether the city already assigned a program supplier before you sign a parallel deal.
ISO-NE sits behind Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil Basic Service procurements. Shared regional winter risk does not let you paste a Boston Eversource six-month Basic Service date onto a Worcester National Grid monthly medium-C&I default.
Consolidated bills, dual bills, and Basic Service line items
Basic Service prices embed supply costs, RPS compliance, and a small administrative component. Those pieces are how the electric company recovers procurement. They are not a menu you can shop away while staying on Basic Service. A competitive product replaces the Basic Service generation block; it does not rewrite the distribution customer charge or demand ratchet on the Eversource or National Grid tariff.
On a consolidated bill, the utility remains the remittance address for delivery plus the supplier’s generation. On a dual bill, the supplier invoices generation separately. Either way, a feeder outage is still an Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil event. DPU’s competitive-supply overview is the official description of those two billing elections.
Early termination fees can attach to fixed-price competitive products. Variable products often have no stated term. Read the EnergySwitchMA disclosure for the product you were actually offered, including whether it exceeds RPS Class I content, before you compare it with the Basic Service option that applies to your class.
After a switch, the first invoices are for checking that delivery stayed labeled as the electric company and that generation shows the supplier (or a second invoice). A “credit” that is actually a class mismatch is a DPU or utility billing problem, not proof that Basic Service failed.
ISO-NE winters on extract motors and makeup air
Coin stores run washers, extract, lighting, and HVAC on the electric meter through long hours. Medium and large C&I accounts that sit on monthly Basic Service feel ISO-NE winter movements more quickly than small-C&I accounts sitting on a six-month fixed Basic Service block. That class difference is why Worcester demand meters and neighborhood small-commercial meters should not share one shopping story.
Student-adjacent cities such as Lowell and Worcester see calendar spikes around move-in and winter break that do not match a downtown Boston weekday pattern. Use your own interval or monthly history. This page will not invent a kWh-per-store figure or a savings percentage against Basic Service.
A variable competitive product tied to futures or to supplier discretion can move in the same months makeup-air units fight cold, dry winter air on the dryer side. A fixed product can look expensive relative to a mild Basic Service quarter and cheap relative to a tight quarter. Compare the DPU-described structure, not a verbal “you will beat Basic Service.”
If you electrify dryers or add a large booster, ask the electric company whether you still belong on the small-C&I six-month Basic Service default. Crossing into medium or large C&I changes both the default product and the procurement calendar the DPU table describes.
MLP towns, legacy Eversource files, and Worcester-versus-Boston quotes
Opening EnergySwitchMA before you know whether the town is an MLP is the expensive mistake. Wellesley, Belmont, Concord, Norwood, and Taunton are examples on the Mass.gov MLP roster; a broker deck that ignores that roster is not a Massachusetts procurement. The MLP sets its own rates through municipal officials.
The second mistake is using an Eversource Boston NSTAR Basic Service date on a National Grid Worcester or Lowell meter. Different electric companies run different Basic Service solicitations even though both file under the DPU framework. Filter EnergySwitchMA and the Basic Service spreadsheet by company.
The third mistake is treating a medium or large C&I monthly Basic Service default like the small-C&I six-month product. DPU’s table is unambiguous about solicitation frequency and about which option the electric company assigns first. Ask which option you are on before you call the default “the rate.”
The fourth mistake is assuming DPU price-regulates the competitive product because DPU licenses the supplier. The competitive-supply overview states the opposite: DPU does not oversee how suppliers set product prices. License check and product-disclosure read are still mandatory.
Pre-quote steps for Boston, Worcester, and Springfield stores
Read the distribution company on the bill. If the name is a municipal light plant on the Mass.gov list, stop. If it is Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil, download the current Basic Service information for that company and identify whether you are on the small-C&I six-month default or the medium/large monthly default.
Open https://energyswitchma.com/ only after that class check. Match fixed versus variable structure, term, early termination language, and consolidated versus dual billing to how the store actually pays invoices. Confirm DPU licensure rather than trusting a brand that also sells in another state.
Split a year of bills into Basic Service or competitive generation versus delivery. File the electric-company outage number apart from the supplier. If dryers are gas, confirm LDC marketer eligibility as a separate question from EnergySwitchMA.
Check municipal aggregation status so you do not sign an individual competitive contract that fights an opt-out program already on the account. After enrollment, audit the first two bills for the correct billing election.
Revisit class after equipment changes, and revisit Basic Service postings on the DPU six-month or quarterly cadence that applies to you. DPU’s organization page at https://www.mass.gov/orgs/dpu is the complaint and docket entry if a supplier enrollment or fee does not match the disclosure.
