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Attorney General Issues Another Scathing Competitive Electric Supply Report
The Competitive Electric Supply Industry Drives Up Costs for All Ratepayers
On March 31, 2026 via a press release, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell released her office’s scathing competitive electric supply report -which according to her office- “revealed that over the last decade, Massachusetts residential customers who switched to competitive supply collectively paid over $738.7 million more on their electric bills than they would have paid if they stayed on basic service.”
Highlights from the AG report:
“This year’s report highlights two important and urgent issues:
- Newly collected information substantiates that the competitive supply market affects the distribution rates paid by all ratepayers—even ratepayers who do not participate in the competitive supply market.
- Eliminating competitive suppliers that charge the highest rates will not cure the significant financial harm caused by the competitive supply market.”
“Meaningful Market Reform Must Involve Wide-Spread Changes That Impact All Suppliers”
“The 2026 Update further confirms an important finding from the AGO’s previous analyses: the problems with the competitive supply market will not be cured by removing the suppliers that are charging exorbitantly high rates. It is not uncommon for suppliers to blame a few “bad actors” for tainting the market. However, the undisputed data from the AGO’s annual reports demonstrates that removing suppliers that charge the highest rates from the market would only address a small percent of the total customer losses caused by the competitive supply market.
Suppliers charging more than 90 percent above the basic service rate account for only 4.71 percent of customer losses, while suppliers charging between 10 and 30 percent above the basic service rate account for 51.45 percent of customer losses.”
The Competitive Electric Supply Industry Drives Up Costs for All Ratepayers
“New information collected for the first time in this year’s report demonstrates that the competitive electric supply market affects the rates paid by all ratepayers – even those who do not participate in the competitive supply market – by driving up the cost of bill payment assistance programs.”
