SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Due to winter power rate hikes from Eversource and National Grid, western Mass. residents are saying that their bills have skyrocketed by hundreds of dollars.
Western Mass News spoke with homeowners who said that the rise in home heating costs has them struggling to make ends meet.
Keeping the lights on is becoming a bigger task for National Grid and Eversource customers as rising rates have caused people to scale back their budgets just to be able to pay their bills. We spoke with some people who said that the rates are getting ridiculous.
“I just had some new electrical stuff put in the house and I was shocked when the first bill came out,” Rhodric Gates of Chicopee told us.
“We unplug everything now that we don’t use and it’s still at $400 a month,” added Gabriel Enamorado of Springfield. “And then, this month. today. my mom just sent me a text saying our bill is $511.”
“I just think it’s straight highway robbery,” Patricia Overstreet said.
Beginning on January 1st, Eversource’s winter rates – in effect until at least June 30th – went from 13.371 cents per kilowatt hour last winter to 21.864 cents per kilowatt hour.
Meanwhile, National Grid’s rates rose 64% since last winter. In a statement regarding the rate hikes, National Grid said:
“In total, the monthly bill of a typical residential electric customer using 600 kWh (kilowatt-hours) will increase from $179 in the winter 2021-2022 season, to approximately $293 for the winter 2022-2023 season.”
Customers of those power companies told us that they are having to adjust their budgets to make up for the rising costs.
“We try to monitor everything and it’s the same, it doesn’t even change,” Enamorado said. “I think one month we had it at $300 and we had almost every single thing off and that was maybe September.”
“I was paying approximately a little over $150,” Gates told us. “It went up $100, closer to $200.”
One program is looking to help people get over the pain in their pocketbooks. The Salvation Army’s Good Neighbor Energy Assistance Program hopes to help absorb part of the cost of powering your home.
Social Services Director Danielle Lataille told Western Mass News that hundreds of people have called to apply for assistance. Some people she’s spoken with have had bills over $1,000.
“We have a lot of folks that have come to us and said they have never had to reach out for assistance before,” Lataille said. “But with the increased cost in these gas and electric bills, they’re having to come and reach out to programs such as ours.”
Eversource and National Grid have also introduced assistance programs for those struggling to pay their bills. Customers hope that the power companies can help them get through the winter prices until rates come back down for the summer.
“Our next resort is to call them and see what’s going on and ask if there’s anything we can do to help ourselves,” Enamorado said. “Every month for the past 2 or 3 years, it’s been going up and up and up and up.”
