Electricity Market Structure With the passage of the Electricity Restructuring Act, the Massachusetts electricity market opened in November 1997. For the first seven years the competitive marketplace included standard offer service, a state-controlled rate, which distribution companies provided to their customers who had not chosen a competitive power supplier.
On March 1, 2005, standard offer service ended, and all customers were moved to a more variable market-based rate called basic service. Those customers on basic service have their electric pricing reset every three months at a time and are exposed to market fluctuations with rate changes as often as four times a year. Conversely those who enter into agreements with competitive suppliers can have substantially more stable energy costs for a longer period of time.
About Switching in Massachusetts To be eligible to switch, your company's facilities must be located in one or more of these utilities' service territories:
- National Grid
- NSTAR
- Western Massachusetts Electric
- Unitil (Fitchburg Gas & Electric)
The first step in switching your business' electricity service is completing a Data Authorization Form (DAF) form that allows Constellation NewEnergy to gather historical electricity usage data from your utility. This data is necessary to analyze your power consumption patterns and to develop a proposal that is customized to the needs of your business.
You will then sign a retail Electricity Supply Agreement stating the specific product your price for electric service and the duration of the agreement. After our agreement is signed, the enrollment process is simple. Our operations team will work to provide a seamless transition from the utility as your electricity accounts are transferred to our service. Customers are generally switched to a competitive supplier on their next meter read/cycle date.
 authorization_new_england_utilities.pdf
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How to Switch