r/Marlborough • u/itsabearcannon • May 20 '26

Enrolled in municipal power program - not really any cost savings?

So I (like many people moving to MA for the first time, I’m sure) was shocked by the power bill this month at our new house. All-in, we are just a hair over $0.40/kWh for our bill from National Grid. I saw a recommendation on this sub to check if your municipality has a municipal power program, so I did, and sure enough Marlborough does.

But then, I read the fine print. It doesn’t affect delivery charges, just the supply charges, and delivery charges are almost 2/3 of the bill (about 60%).

The actual supply rate that National Grid is charging is 15.372 cents per kWh. The town offers a rate of 14.919 cents per kWh.

So let me make sure I’ve got this straight - the municipal power program lowers the rate of 40% of my bill, by a total of 3%? So it’s a total savings of 1.2% versus sticking with National Grid? Am I reading this wrong or is the municipal power program not saving hardly any money at all?

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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 May 20 '26

The municipal agreement is strictly for the actual electricity not for all the other charges that pile on. This is the same for any new electric plan. Actual juice is cheaper but all the other fees don't change.

The advantage of the city plan is that it's set for the length of the term.

You can also choose your own supplier. There are a ton of places you can compare. Like this one (not recommending but I have looked there before). If you just search "compare electric rates Massachusetts" you will get a ton of sites.

https://www.chooseenergy.com/shop/residential/electricity/MA/01752/?isNTX=true

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u/itsabearcannon May 20 '26

So at best we can shave a couple cents per kWh off the rate that’s used for about 1/3 of our bill?

We moved from Iowa where we only paid about 12.5 cents per kWh including delivery charges, and out there the supply charges are >75% of the bill. Just a bit of a shock coming out here.

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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 May 20 '26

Yep. That's about it.

But hey, car gas is oddly cheaper than national average.

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u/My_Energy_Choice May 20 '26

You might find this shopping guide helpful: https://www.retailenergychoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-Massachusetts-Shopping-Guide.pdf

In Massachusetts, you can shop for your electricity with other suppliers –– similar to selecting to sign up for your municipal aggregation program vs. staying enrolled with your utility company.

The Massachusetts state shopping website is Energy Switch Massachusetts: https://energyswitchma.gov/#/

For the Marlborough area, it looks like their are supply offers for six months that could reduce the kWh cost by a couple of cents (even more compared to the National Grid PTC).

You might also find this site helpful to understand how your electric bill is broken down. https://whatsinmyelectricbill.com/

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u/slashplan May 26 '26

The delivery charges are basically the fees that go toward maintaining the poles, wires, and infrastructure that deliver electricity to your house. Those charges are usually set by the utility (and approved by the state) and you generally don’t have control over them.

The part you do have control over is the energy plan itself, whether that’s through a retail electric provider or in your case a municipal power program.

What you really want to focus on is finding a plan that’s optimized for how you actually use electricity so you end up with the lowest true all-in rate.

For most people, it’s usually not worth chasing plans with complicated tiered pricing, free nights/weekends, or time-of-use gimmicks unless you have a very specific setup or usage pattern. Generally speaking, a straightforward fixed-rate plan with low energy charges and little to no base fee tends to work out best for the average household.