Massachusetts Has a Once-in-a-Generation Chance to Lower Your Electric Bill
The stars are aligning in Massachusetts for real electricity affordability reform — and a smarter approach to how we build and manage the grid is right at the center of it.
The Massachusetts House energy bill included strong distributed energy resource (DER) provisions that center on community-based power solutions like solar, building important momentum for smart policy changes in the Commonwealth. Building on that foundation, Governor Healey reinforced that direction on March 16 when she signed Executive Order No. 654, directing the Commonwealth to bring 10 gigawatts of new energy resources online by 2035, including 3.5 GW from demand management strategies like virtual power plants, energy efficiency, and demand response.
Together, these actions reflect a clear and growing direction in Massachusetts policymaking: distributed energy resources are a core solution to affordability, not a side project.
Now the legislature has a chance to make that vision real with a concrete policy backstop. Vote Solar and our partners have proposed a DER Peak Reduction Standard to be included in the Senate energy bill, both as a standalone affordability measure and as the enforcement mechanism that gives the House bill’s DER provisions real teeth.
Electricity is expensive. What can be done about it?
A large share of your electricity costs is driven by just a handful of hours each year – the rare, brutally hot afternoons when everyone runs their AC at once. Utilities plan and build their entire systems around these moments. They construct substations, upgrade transformers, and add feeders to make sure the grid can handle those peaks. And because utilities earn regulated returns on every dollar of capital they spend, the financial incentive is always to build more, rather than find a smarter solution.
The problem isn’t that utilities are planning for peak demand. The problem is that there’s a cheaper, cleaner way to meet it, and the current rules don’t require them to use it.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts ratepayers are already being charged more than they should be. A recent study found that Basic Service ratepayers in Massachusetts are paying an average of $22 per month in hidden retail premiums (the gap between what consumers pay and what electricity actually costs in the ISO New England market). Over ten years, those markups totaled $3.4 billion. And nationally, the Energy and Policy Institute has documented how utilities across the country are earning strong and often rising profits—currently keeping 15 cents of every dollar we pay—even as families struggle with higher bills.
Community-based power like rooftop solar, battery storage, demand response, and energy efficiency can reduce demand during peak hours, avoiding the need for new fossil-fuel infrastructure in the first place. A 2025 Synapse Energy Economics analysis found that new solar and storage additions across New England between 2025 and 2030 are projected to save Bay Staters an estimated $313 million in energy costs in 2030 alone by lowering wholesale electricity prices and cutting the need for expensive gas-fired generation during the hours it matters most. The same analysis found that 44 percent of those savings would occur between November and March, putting to rest the idea that solar is only a summer resource.
The grid itself has untapped potential that’s going to waste. A March 2026 Brattle Group study found that because the power system is built to serve infrequent spikes in demand, less than half of its capacity is used throughout the year; using it more efficiently is one of the most powerful tools available to bring bills down. At a national scale, the Brattle study estimated that improving system utilization could save U.S. consumers between $110 and $170 billion over 10 years.
The solution: an accountability standard for how utilities plan the grid
The DER Peak Reduction Standard would change the rules of the game for grid planning in Massachusetts:
Before utilities can file for approval of new substations, transformers, or feeder expansions primarily meant to meet peak demand growth, they would first be required to submit a rigorous non-wires alternative analysis — a public, on-the-record demonstration that they have fully evaluated whether solar, storage, or efficiency could meet the need at lower cost. Where a cost-effective alternative exists, the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) would be required to mandate it.
This isn’t hypothetical. Massachusetts utilities have already proposed approximately $3.4 billion in Electric Sector Modernization Plan spending between 2025 and 2029 — including National Grid’s request for $2.4 billion and Eversource’s request for approximately $820 million in capital and operations spending over that period. That’s a lot of investment decisions that could, right now, be evaluated against a DER alternative. The standard we’re proposing would ensure that the cost-benefit analysis happens every time.
The policy proposal also includes:
- Grid transparency. Utilities would file annual public reports disclosing hosting capacity, utilization rates, and available capacity at every feeder and substation on their systems. Right now, that data is largely opaque, making it difficult for developers and regulators to identify where community-based power could connect without new infrastructure.
- Smart Grid Usage. Building on the flexible interconnection in the House energy bill and the Governor’s executive order, this provision would ensure that utilities are making full use of grid capacity where it’s currently left underused.
- Peak reduction targets. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs would establish binding, regularly reviewed targets for the share of peak demand that distributed energy resources should meet, providing the market certainty for investment opportunities.
- Performance incentives that reward savings. Utilities could earn performance-based incentives tied to reducing costs for consumers, not just building infrastructure.
The momentum is real, and Massachusetts can lead.
Flexible interconnection, virtual power plant requirements, smart permitting, and municipal net metering reforms are each critical tools for expanding clean energy access and lowering costs. The DER Peak Reduction Standard completes the picture by ensuring these tools are embedded in utility planning decisions – requiring utilities to demonstrate publicly to the DPU that they have fully evaluated them before seeking approval for costly new infrastructure spending. Without this backstop, nothing stops utilities from nodding at the House’s DER provisions while continuing to plan around traditional capital investments. The House provisions open the door, and this proposal ensures utilities walk through it.
The Commonwealth is building the regulatory foundation for exactly this kind of grid transformation. The DPU is actively investigating delivery charge structures and bill redesign. This proceeding recognizes that the way consumers are billed must evolve alongside the grid itself. Under the Governor’s executive order, the DPU has been directed to expedite review of proposals that unlock the benefits of time-of-use electricity rates, distributed energy resources, energy efficiency, and virtual power plants. The Commonwealth has set an explicit goal of 3.5 GW from demand management strategies, including virtual power plants, and 5 GW of energy storage. These resources deliver their full value when the grid is designed to receive them. A DER Peak Reduction Standard is an accountability structure we need to get there.
Other states are already moving. In February 2026, the Virginia House of Delegates voted unanimously to pass HB434, directing its State Corporation Commission to work with utilities to establish grid utilization metrics and develop timelines for improvement, including an analysis of the potential for non-wires alternatives to improve performance. Massachusetts can lead by going even further.
Governor Healey’s executive order, signed last month, pointed Massachusetts in the right direction: a grid powered by community-based power, with lower bills for everyone. A DER Peak Reduction Standard is one of the clearest on-ramps to get there. It aligns utility incentives with affordability, opens the grid to solar and storage resources, and ensures that billions of dollars in currently planned grid investments are evaluated against the smartest, most affordable alternatives.