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Mark Your Calendar – Energy Affordability
The Phase II working group meeting scheduled for 11:00 a.m. ET on June 23, 2025.
On May 15, 2025 a Hearing Officer issued a memo on a tiered discount rates model and announcing a technical conference and request for comments on the matter. On May 16, 2025 the Hearing Officer issued memo on Energy Burden Phase II working group. The subsequent memo announced that the working group will inquire into several topics, listed… in order of priority”: (1) LIDR eligibility and verification; (2) LIDR verification through state data matching; (3) LIDR enrollment; (4) outreach; and (5) disconnection protections.
Most recently, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities convened a meeting of the D.P.U. 23-67 working group to facilitate the development of Low-Income Community Shared Solar (“LICSS”)-related recommendations for the Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) in its Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (“SMART”) 3.0 rulemaking proceeding. One of the issues discussed during the meeting was the way in which the savings that low-income customers realize for participating in a LICSS program should be presented on the customers’ electric bills. To further explore this issue with stakeholders, the Department will convene a meeting of the working group on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. This meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. The Department will provide the agenda for the meeting at a later date.
As reported previously, the Massachusetts DPU initiated this inquiry to examine energy burden with a focus on energy affordability for residential ratepayers and to consider improvements to the programs currently offered to address energy affordability, including participation in existing programs and the creation of new programs.
DPU Docket No. 24-15 (01/04/2024)
(Inquiry to examine energy burden with a focus on energy affordability for residential ratepayers and to consider improvements to the programs currently offered to address energy affordability)
