How aggregation works

The Green Worcester ElectriCITY Municipal Aggregation Program is a municipal electricity aggregation, which is a kind of group electricity buying program for a city or town.

  • Worcester buys electricity from an electricity supplier that it chooses.
  • You receive a new price for the Electricity Supply charge on your National Grid bill.
  • National Grid remains Worcester’s electric utility and continues to deliver your electricity, address power outages, and handle all billing as it does now.

Aggregation is possible because in Massachusetts we can choose our electricity supplier, which is the company that puts electricity on the grid for us.

National Grid will continue to deliver your electricity, and you will remain a customer of National Grid because they are Worcester’s only electric utility.

Municipal electricity aggregation was enabled by the Massachusetts Restructuring Act of 1997 (Chapter 164, Section 134) and is regulated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.

Before aggregation

Before an aggregation launches, most customers have National Grid’s Basic Service. This means National Grid is supplying (buying) your electricity in addition to delivering it, and National Grid uses their Basic Service price to calculate the electricity supply charge on your bill. You are placed on National Grid’s Basic Service when you first open your account, and you can always go back to it.

National Grid’s Basic Service prices change every 6 months or less.

With an aggregation in place

With an aggregation, the electricity supplier chosen by Worcester, which is Direct Energy, supplies your electricity. But you remain a customer of National Grid because they are Worcester’s only electric utility. National Grid continues to deliver your electricity, and their delivery charges appear under the “Delivery Services” section of your bill. National Grid uses the price provided by the supplier to calculate the electricity supply charge in the “Supply Services” section of your bill instead of their Basic Service price. Green Worcester ElectriCITY prices are fixed and will not change from December 2025 meter reads until December 2027 meter reads.

Your primary relationship for electricity remains with National Grid:

  • You continue to call National Grid if you lose power.
  • National Grid continues to send your bill, and you will not receive a separate bill from the Green Worcester ElectriCITY Municipal Aggregation Program.
  • You continue to send bill payments to National Grid.

If you are eligible for a low-income discount or fuel assistance, you continue to receive that benefit.

If you have National Grid’s Budget Billing, it continues to apply to your whole bill.

If you are participating in community solar, or you are receiving net metering credits or incentive payments for electricity produced by solar panels on your property, you will continue to receive your credits or incentive payments as a participant in the Green Worcester ElectriCITY Municipal Aggregation Program. Further, there will be no change in how they are calculated. Their calculation is not connected to your electricity supply price.

 

Will you save money?

Maybe! According to a report by UMass Amherst, the majority of communities with aggregation programs do see some savings compared with National Grid’s Basic Service prices.

However, Green Worcester ElectriCITY offers long-term fixed prices, while National Grid’s prices change every 6 months or less. As a result, savings compared with National Grid can never be guaranteed.

If you are not happy with the program, you are always free to leave the program at any time with no fee or penalty.

Learn more about aggregation

Example National Grid bill
Participating
Renewable energy