How to read your new gas bill

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Just in time for colder weather and winter rate increases, Eversource has redesigned its gas bill in the hopes of making it less confusing. Here’s how it works. 

The biggest change to your bill is that the once-obscure “delivery charges” are now broken down into two separate components: “Public Benefits” and “Maintenance and Infrastructure Investment.” Beyond this, charges from different programs have their own line items. The bill is also color-coded to help customers understand which line items fall under different categories.

Delivery charges are often more than the cost of gas itself. As the cost of gas bills has risen, people in Massachusetts have complained about the lack of transparency in what delivery charges include. Now, gas customers can see them as line items. 

The new bill also includes a QR code, which will bring customers to an explanation of how to read the bill. 

One line item, energy efficiency, shows the cost of the state-mandated Mass Save program. A state agency ordered Eversource earlier this year to include that line in bills. 

The rest of the bill redesign comes after Eversource said it heard from customers that gas bills were confusing. 

Many struggled to understand why their overall bill and associated charges were increasing, and how those increases were related to their energy usage, according to Olessa Stepanova, Eversource’s external communications manager.

“There was confusion over how rates are set and what different charges represent,” Stepanova wrote in an email to The Light. “We believe this redesign will improve customer understanding, knowledge, and experience.”

So what are the different charges? 

“Maintenance and Infrastructure Investment” charges

Eversource defines this category as the cost of operating and maintaining the natural gas delivery system. This system includes underground pipes, regulator stations, valves and other equipment, as well as the materials, vehicles and tools used to maintain the system, and the employees who do that work. 

On your bill, these are broken down into the following line items: 

• Distribution — the cost of getting the energy to your house
• Revenue decoupling — which separates a utility’s profits from energy usage, guaranteeing a profit margin
• Distribution adjustment charge — Eversource describes this as a mechanism that allows the company to recover approved investments in pipeline safety and reliability, reviewed by the state Department of Public Utilities. “It helps ensure the system is maintained to state and federal safety standards,” Stepanova wrote. 
• Gas System Enhancement Program — a state-ordered program that requires utilities to replace leak-prone natural gas pipeline infrastructure. (In May, the state DPU ordered changes to the program to lower its cost.)
• A customer service charge — a fixed fee that covers the basic costs of providing service to customers, regardless of how much gas they use, according to Eversource. This includes your gas meter: what it costs to install, maintain and service it. The charge also covers billing, customer service and account-related expenses. 

“Public Benefits” charges

This category includes the costs of energy efficiency, payment assistance, and other programs that help reduce energy usage and enable customers to better manage their monthly bills, according to Eversource. 

Line items under public benefits now include the state’s energy efficiency program, Mass Save, which offers services to improve a home’s energy efficiency. In February, the state DPU ordered Eversource to include a line item for energy efficiency on bills, in an effort to increase transparency. It also ordered a decrease in spending on Mass Save.

Public benefits charges also include residential assistance programs, such as the Home Energy Assistance Program, and geothermal charges. 

Geothermal charges fund program development and evaluation for geothermal district heating systems to support the state’s clean energy and decarbonization goals. Currently, the only active geothermal project is in Framingham. 

How is gas usage measured?

Beyond these charges is the gas energy Eversource customers use.

Supply costs reflect the cost of natural gas in the wholesale market. So costs rise in the winter, with demand, and fall in the summer.

Gas usage is measured in therms, a unit of heat energy. An Eversource gas bill shows how much gas customers used during a billing period in therms. As a general guideline, Eversource said the average residential heating customer in Massachusetts uses around 127 therms in the coldest winter months.

While usage varies based on weather, the charges for supply — which is the cost of the natural gas used — are typically lower than the combined Maintenance and Infrastructure Investment and Public Benefits charges. 

Current percentages for Eversource’s NSTAR Gas territories (which include Greater New Bedford) are:

• Supply: 34%
• Maintenance and Infrastructure Investment: 45%
• Public Benefits: 21%

Eversource does not control or profit from supply charges, so the company pays the same for supply as its customers do. This portion of the bill is staying the same.

To explore an interactive version of the new bill, click here. 

Getting help with your bill

In addition to a bill redesign, rate changes for the winter took effect on Nov. 1. According to Eversource, residential heating customers will see an average monthly increase of 8% compared to last winter. That comes after the DPU rejected an increase of at least 13%, which Eversource had requested. Still, a milder winter this year could mean less usage and cheaper bills. 

However, if the rate increase makes paying the gas bill difficult for customers, Eversource allows customers to sign up for monthly payment plans (find info here). MassSave, the state’s energy efficiency program, helps weatherize homes, reducing gas usage. Lower-income residents can apply for the state’s Home Energy Assistance Program, which is administered in Greater New Bedford by the local nonprofit PACE; you can read this article from The Light about how to apply.

Other programs include:

• Income-eligible discounts
• The New Start Program for NSTAR customers
• The Massachusetts Good Neighbor Energy Fund

Abigail Pritchard, a graduate student in the Boston University journalism program, is a frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light. She can be reached at apritchard@newbedfordlight.org.