WORCESTER, MA — Worcester residents enrolled in the city’s electricity aggregation program will see lower supply rates beginning with October National Grid bills.
The Green Worcester ElectriCITY Aggregation program says its new rates will take effect with September 2026 meter readings and remain in place through December 2027. Current participants do not need to take any action.
The Standard Green plan, which the city says includes most program participants, will drop from 15.32 cents per kilowatt-hour to 14.12 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The other program options will also become less expensive:
- Standard Green: 14.12 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 15.32 cents.
- 100% Green: 14.19 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 16.51 cents.
- Basic Green: 14.08 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 14.69 cents.
For a household using 600 kilowatt-hours in a month, the new Standard Green rate would reduce the supply portion of the bill by about $7.20 compared with the previous program rate. The actual total bill will also include delivery charges and other costs that are not affected by this change.
The new prices will appear on October National Grid bills under the supplier name “Green Worc Electricity Aggregation Prog.” The program affects only the Supply Services portion of the bill. National Grid delivery charges will not change.
The city says the Standard Green and Basic Green rates will remain below National Grid’s current residential Basic Service rate of 17.185 cents per kilowatt-hour. That rate is in effect through January 31, 2027. Worcester officials caution that savings compared with National Grid cannot be guaranteed after that date because future National Grid rates have not yet been announced.Why the program is changing
The lower rates are connected to a change in the program’s renewable-energy purchases.
Since 2020, the aggregation program has purchased more clean electricity than state law requires. The city has partly used Massachusetts Class I Renewable Energy Certificates, commonly called RECs, which are intended to support new renewable-energy projects in the New England electricity market.
According to the city, recent federal policy changes mean that fewer new renewable projects are expected to begin construction in the near future. The city said that makes the purchase of local RECs a less effective way to encourage new development under current conditions.
The program will temporarily pause that additional investment and instead purchase lower-cost voluntary National Wind RECs from outside New England. City officials said the change will allow participants to continue supporting renewable electricity claims while reducing their program rates.
The city’s release does not identify the specific federal policy changes behind the decision or provide a comparison of the environmental impact of the two types of RECs.
What customers can do
Current participants will remain enrolled in the price option they already selected. They may change options or leave the program at any time without a fee or penalty.
Customers receiving low-income discounts will not see a change to that benefit, according to the city. Additional terms may apply to large commercial and industrial customers.
Worcester says the aggregation program has saved participants more than $8.5 million compared with National Grid prices since it began in 2020. The city also estimates that the program has helped reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 137,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Those figures were provided by the city and were not independently verified for this article.
Residents can review the program options and enrollment information through Green Worcester ElectriCITY. The program’s customer-support number is 833-926-1207.
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- Project / Topic: Worcester’s Green Worcester ElectriCITY municipal electricity aggregation program.
- Current Status: New lower supply rates have been announced for current program participants.
- Key Dates or Decisions: The new prices apply to September 2026 meter readings and are expected to appear on October 2026 National Grid bills. The announced rates are scheduled to remain in effect through December 2027.
- Estimated Cost: The city’s release does not identify a program implementation cost. For a household using 600 kilowatt-hours per month, the Standard Green rate change equals approximately $7.20 in monthly supply savings compared with the previous program rate.
- Timeline: The new rates begin with September 2026 meter reads. National Grid’s current residential Basic Service rate is listed as effective through January 31, 2027.
- Immediate Next Steps: Current participants do not need to take action. They should see the new rate on the Supply Services portion of an October National Grid bill.
- Primary Sources: September 3, 2026, press release from the Office of City Manager Eric D. Batista.
- What We Do Not Yet Know: The city has not identified the specific federal policy changes cited in the release, provided a detailed comparison of the renewable-energy certificates being used, or announced National Grid’s residential Basic Service rate after January 31, 2027.
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