There’s fantastic news for residential heat pump users this Fall. The primary investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts will offer substantially discounted electricity rates for residences that heat with heat pumps. These discounts apply to the delivery charges on the bill, and will be in effect for the coming heating season, from November 2025 through April 2026:
Even better, the discounted rates will apply to the entire household electricity use, not just the heat-pump use. Based on Eversource’s DPU filings, we estimate that the effective discount for the average Massachusetts household is 42% higher than reported above. By “effective discount”, we mean the equivalent discount if the discount applied only to heat-pump electricity use. The effective discount should be used for estimating heating-season energy costs for heat pumps. Therefore, the effective discounts are (on average):
For any individual household, the effective discount could vary widely depending on the portion of their winter electricity use that is used by their heat pump(s).
Based on these discounts, we estimate that heating-season energy costs for air-source heat pumps will be on par with those for natural gas, and provide significant savings compared to fuel oil or propane.
How do homeowners access these discounts? Eversource and National Grid plan to automatically enroll customers who received a Mass Save® rebate for a heat pump installed after January 1, 2019. Others will need to request the new rates, but the utilities are not ready to accept these requests as of this writing. Homeowners can get updated information, when it’s available, directly from the utility’s postings about the new rates (Eversource, National Grid). All homeowners should check their electricity bills covering November usage to confirm that they’re receiving the discount and contact their utility if they’re uncertain.
