Why is your Gardner electric bill higher than expected this month?
Why is your Gardner electric bill higher than expected this month?
Stephen Landry, The Gardner NewsTue, May 5, 2026 at 8:50 AM UTC
0
Some Chair City residents may have noticed an increase in their most recent electricity bills.
Officials in Gardner said they have received requestions regarding the city’s electrical aggregation program, specifically about a change in rate that was reflected in some payers’ bills.
At issue is the city’s Community Choice Power Supply Program, a voluntary aggregation process by which a town or city purchases electricity in bulk from a competitive supplier on behalf of the residents and businesses within the community.
The program, which locked in a rate of $0.15152 per kilowatt hour with the Rhode Island-based supplier First Point Power for all rate classes from March 2026 through November 2028, enables local government to combine the purchasing power of its residents and businesses so that it can provide them with an alternative electricity supply.
This chart shows the amount of savings to Gardner electric ratepayers through the city's aggregation program from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025. The rates recently increased as a result of the very cold days in January.
“This contract locks in electrical rates for those in the City who participate in the electrical aggregation program but contains one clause that allows for variability in costs due to a new regulatory requirement to account for the Day-Ahead Ancillary Services Initiative (DASI) program,” Mayor Michael Nicholson said.
What is DASI?
A new program developed by ISO-New England, the independent, nonprofit organization that operates the electric grid for all six New England states, DASI allows ISO-New England to quickly anticipate the next day’s demand and reliability needs, provide various ancillary services, and provide a more resilient and reliable grid.
“To put this into relatable terms, this can be compared to the grid setting aside emergency supplies ahead of time instead of scrambling at the last-minute during times of emergency or high usage,” Nicholson wrote. “As the grid changes due to more fluctuations in supply, it becomes more important to plan ahead. DASI’s intended purpose is to help ensure the grid can respond quickly if demand goes up or a generator goes offline.”
Advertisement
The city’s contract with First Point Power had a clause requiring that any DASI Cost Recovery Fees would be variable, Nicholson explained.
“Since DASI costs are based on the previous month’s cost data, it can fluctuate depending on how much energy is being used by the grid,” he said. “Due to the extreme cold days we saw in January, the DASI costs increased exponentially as people were using more electricity to heat their locations.”
How are customers affected?
Because of the increased demand in electricity, those cold days in January triggered the clause in the city’s contract that required rates to increase to cover the DASI costs in Gardner expended by First Point Power, according to Nicholson.
This led to an increase in the city’s municipal aggregation plan from $0.13931 per kilowatt hour to $0.15152 per kilowatt hour for the remainder of the city’s current electrical aggregation contract – an increase of $0.01221 per kilowatt hour.
Can customers opt out?
“This increase is being reflected in the last round of electrical bills that many are seeing now,” wrote Nicholson, who noted that all other companies that bid on the city’s electrical aggregation service for the contract also included this clause as a requirement in their proposals as well. “As always, the city’s electrical aggregation contract has provisions that allow unlimited free opt-in/opt-out if rate payers find a cheaper provider with a different carrier.”
The opt-in/opt-out option does require a customer to provide a five-day notice with the city’s electrical supplier, Nicholson noted, while adding that other suppliers may have clauses in their contracts that create fees on that supplier’s end if someone wants to leave their program for the city’s program.
“Even with the increase, the city’s electrical aggregation rate still falls under the average electrical provider rate currently available,” Nicholson noted. “Gardner rate payers have saved $4,596,739 through the city’s electrical aggregation program (which began in 2017) compared to the average private supplier rates during the same period."
This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Gardner MA electricity bills rise due to cold days in January
Source: “AOL Money”
