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Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed S2967 that retains individual residential electric choice, while also requiring certain retail market enhancements.

As reported previously a Senate-passed version of the bill (then S.2838) had included language providing that, “On or after January 1, 2026, no supplier, energy marketer or energy broker shall execute a new contract or renew an existing contract for generation services with any individual residential retail customer”. This provision did not apply to municipal aggregation.

The bill as signed into law, omits this earlier Senate language banning individual electric choice

The signed S.2967 also requires the implementation of the following retail market enhancements:

• Accelerated switching (3 business days) for residential or small commercial customers, upon full AMI deployment
• Contract portability for a customer moving within an EDC service area, allowing the customer to be served by their existing retail supplier at the new location, with no interim period on default service
• Day 1 switching, allowing customers to take retail supplier service immediately upon service initiation, without being placed on default service for an interim period

S.2967 also requires the development of a portal for customer AMI data, and retail supplier access to such, “subject to appropriate customer approval and protections”.

S.2967 also does not include the removal of the current statutory provision which limits the term length of basic service wholesale supply contracts to 6 months, as the earlier Senate bill had done

Note that the Senate’s provision banning individual residential electric choice was also separately passed by the Senate on a stand-alone basis under S.2738 (though it would be effective for 2025 rather than 2026). The stand-alone S.2738 remains sitting in a House committee