Boston: how to compare electricity supply
Short answer. Boston electric delivery is Eversource. Competitive supply is an alternative to Eversource basic service. National Grid basic service, used in other Massachusetts towns, is a different price. The DPU regulates suppliers.
Streets on the edge of a city are often served by a neighboring utility, a municipal utility, or a cooperative. The utility name on the bill decides which offers exist. The city name does not.
The delivery utility and the supply decision
This Boston page is the switching timeline. A request is not effective the hour you click enroll. It is coordinated to a meter read by Eversource. Stay on your current product until the utility confirms the start date. Do not stop paying the delivery utility. If you are inside a contract, price the early termination fee against the expected savings.
Massachusetts customers of Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil can leave basic service for a competitive supplier. Basic service is the utility default, and it changes on a posted schedule. Distribution, outages, and the meter stay with the utility.
What stays on the bill either way
Delivery charges from Eversource pay for the local grid. They are not the supplier’s margin, and a supply switch does not remove them. Taxes and mandated riders also stay. The only piece you are testing is supply: the generation price, plus supplier fees, minus any credits that survive a careful reading of the contract.
National average prices are context, not a target. EIA reported U.S. residential average revenue of 16.5 cents per kWh for 2024 and 18.34 cents per kWh in June 2026. Those figures mix supply and delivery for the whole country. Your price to compare, basic service, or standard offer is a smaller supply number and is the one to beat.
How to run the comparison
- Read the utility name on the bill and confirm it is Eversource. If it is not, stop and use the guide for the utility you actually have.
- Copy the default supply price (price to compare, basic service, standard offer, or SOS) and your typical monthly kWh.
- Open the DPU competitive-supply guidance and filter to this utility or ZIP.
- Reject any offer that does not name Eversource as the delivery company.
- Add monthly fees and decide whether an early termination fee is acceptable for the term.
- Enroll only with a supplier licensed under the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and keep paying Eversource until the switch date is confirmed.
Local notes for Boston
Boston electric delivery is Eversource. Competitive supply is an alternative to Eversource basic service. National Grid basic service, used in other Massachusetts towns, is a different price. The DPU regulates suppliers.
Shop Energy Prices does not post a live offer table for Boston. Any cent figure in an advertisement is stale the moment the supplier changes it. The durable method is the list above plus the contract PDF for the account you are about to sign.
Questions people ask
Who delivers electricity in Boston?
Eversource is the delivery utility this guide is written for. Confirm that name on your bill, because municipal pockets and neighboring utilities use different rules.
Can I pick a supplier in Boston?
Yes, if the account is in your name and the bill is Eversource. You shop supply. Eversource keeps delivery and outages.
Does a lower advertised rate always cut the bill?
No. Compare at your kWh, include monthly fees and credits, and subtract any early termination fee you would pay to leave your current contract. Delivery charges do not disappear.
Read the Massachusetts choice guide for the statewide rules, then price to compare and early termination fees.
Use the bill, not a stale screenshot
Boston: how to compare electricity supply comes down to documents you can keep: the utility name on the bill, the supply price or default price, the kWh or demand that drove the charges, and the term and fees in any contract. National average prices from the Energy Information Administration are context. For 2024, EIA put average residential use at 865 kWh a month and the average residential price at 16.5 cents per kWh. For June 2026, EIA reported 18.34 cents per kWh of residential revenue. Those figures mix supply and delivery for the whole country. They are not a price to compare, and they are not an offer in this territory.
If a salesperson’s number and the bill disagree, keep the bill. Shop Energy Prices does not rank suppliers and does not publish a live rate table. Re-check the official shopping site or the utility tariff on the day you enroll, because offers and default prices change.
Going further on Boston: how to compare electricity supply
Boston: how to compare electricity supply is a local shopping problem only if the account is in a retail-choice territory and the account is in your name. The utility printed on the bill is the fact. The city name is a hint.
Where choice exists, you shop supply. Delivery, outages, and the meter stay with the utility. A supplier that does not name that utility is showing you the wrong product.
The benchmark is the price to compare, basic service, standard offer, or standard-offer service for that utility, not the national average. EIA’s 16.5 cents per kWh for 2024 and 18.34 cents of residential revenue per kWh in June 2026 mix supply and delivery for the whole country.
Offers change. This site does not rank companies and does not post a live table. On the day you enroll, read the contract term, the monthly fee, and the early termination fee at your own kilowatt-hours.
An illustration only: moving from 11 cents to 10 cents on 1100 kilowatt-hours is 11 dollars before fees. A monthly fee or an early termination fee can erase it. Delivery does not disappear.
Addresses on the edge of a town, and addresses served by a municipal utility or a cooperative, often cannot use the investor-owned shopping site. If the bill and this page disagree, follow the bill.
What to verify before you act
Write down the utility name, the account name, the supply price or default price, and a typical month of use. Boston: how to compare electricity supply does not change those four facts. If a contractor, a supplier, or a city page disagrees with the bill, the bill wins. Shop Energy Prices does not sell electricity and does not keep a live rate table.
Use one official source for the benchmark: the price to compare or default service on the bill, the state shopping site if your state publishes one, or the commission docket that sets the default. EIA’s national averages are context for scale. They are the wrong number to beat.
Keep the contract PDF. Circle the term, the fee to leave, the renewal rule, and any pass-through that is not fixed. A verbal match to a competitor is not the product. If you are inside a cancellation window, follow the written notice method the same day and keep a copy.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions Boston: how to compare electricity supply and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.