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New Massachusetts Bill Would Now Give Towns The Right To Ban Residential Electric Choice, Bill Reported From Committee
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A newly numbered Massachusetts bill, H.5151, has been reported from the House Ways and Means Committee and would allow individual towns and cities to ban individual residential electric choice
H.5151 serves as a substitute for H.4744 which, as previously reported, contained a number of provisions which would be harmful to the retail energy markets but which would not outright ban individual residential electric choice (unlike certain other bills before Massachusetts lawmakers).
Specifically, H.5151 would provide that any city or town may, by a town meeting vote or vote by the municipality's legislative body (whichever is applicable to such municipality) may prohibit any retail supplier, marketer, or broker from executing a new contract, or renewing an existing contract, for generation services with any individual residential retail customer within such municipality
This prohibition would not apply to municipal aggregation
H.5151 includes various provisions restricting residential automatic renewals
Under the bill, an electric supplier may only renew a residential customer if the supplier has obtained affirmative consent for the automatic renewal
However, consent for automatic renewal may be obtained at the time of enrollment, or any time thereafter, H.5151 provides
To automatically renew a residential electric customer, the supplier would also be required to send to the customer 2 renewal notices, both of which shall "clearly disclose" the
renewal rate, term, and instructions on how to opt-out of the renewal
Regardless of consent for auto-renewal, H.5151 would ban automatic renewal from a fixed rate to a variable rate
H.5151 would require third-party verification for all in-person sales and all telephonic sales for residential electricity
H.5151 would ban for residential electric customers variable rates, except for seasonal rates (which may not adjust more than twice annually) and TOU rates
H.5151 would ban early termination fees for residential electric customers
H.5151 would ban service by retail electric suppliers to a "low-income residential customer."
All provisions described above would not apply to municipal aggregation
H.5151 would authorize the DPU to adopt supplier-specific purchase of receivables discount rates, based on the supplier’s amount of uncollectible bills or percentage of customers in arrears, relative to the average of the uncollectible bills for the participating classes of the electric distribution company or the average number of customers in arrears.
H.5151 changes the language concerning this POR provision such that the DPU may adopt supplier-specific POR discounts on the DPU's own motion. Prior bills would have required an application from an electric utility to institute a supplier-specific POR discount
H.5151 would require a $5 million bond for, "Each energy marketer or other supplier that applies for a retail license."
The bill provides, "The bond shall be conditioned upon the
full and faithful performance of all duties and obligations of the applicant as a retail supplier and
shall be valid for a period of not less than 1 year."
"Energy marketer" would be defined as, "any entity, firm, partnership, association, private corporation or other
third-party entity who contracts with or is otherwise directly engaged and compensated by a
supplier to sell electric generation services, or who contracts with and is directly compensated by
a third-party marketer of the supplier to sell electric generation services on behalf of a supplier,
that markets, advertises or otherwise offers to sell generation service to retail customers,
including, but not limited to, entities engaged in door-to-door, telemarketing or tabletop
interactions with retail customers."
The bill would provide that "energy marketer" shall not include contractors, agents or
employees engaged in incidental activities where compensation is not tied to customer
enrollment.
As previously reported, while the following may not be the intent of the bill, the language requiring a $5 million bond may be read as including brokers as subject to the $5 million bond requirement [an issue first identified by EnergyChoiceMatters.com (story here) with respect to H.4744, with no clean-up in the new H.5151]
Notably, under existing statute, "supplier" is defined as, "a supplier of generation service to retail customers, including power marketers, brokers and marketing affiliates of distribution companies, except that no electric company shall be considered a supplier." [emphasis added]
The term "retail supplier" is not defined in the bill
The term "broker" is not defined under existing statute, nor would H.5151 define broker. The DPU's regulations (not statute) provide that a broker is an entity which, "facilitates or otherwise arranges for the purchase and sale of electricity and related services to Retail Customers, but does not sell electricity."
However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has noted that, under statute, "'supplier[s]' are defined to include energy brokers," with the court observing that, "Although the department's regulations distinguish between competitive suppliers and electricity brokers, in that a broker does not own or sell electricity to a consumer and only 'facilitates or otherwise arranges' for its purchase and sale, 220 Code Mass. Regs. § 11.02, a broker is treated as equivalent to a supplier in the broader regulatory scheme." [emphasis added] (Northeast Energy Partners, LLC v. Mahar Regional Sch. Dist., 462 Mass. 687, 971 N.E.2d 258 (2012))
The existing statutory definition of supplier could be read as a broker only being defined as a supplier if the broker is a, "supplier of generation service to retail customers." However, the phrase "including ... brokers" may also be read more broadly as noted above
The bill's application of the $5 million bond requirement to a "supplier" which applies for a "retail license" is not dispositive on the matter, because, for electricity, neither the DPU's distinct "competitive supplier" license nor the DPU's distinct "electricity broker" license is described as a "retail license"
H.5151 does not narrow the definition of "supplier" nor does the bill explicitly exclude brokers from the $5 million bond requirement (in contrast, as noted below, the bill specifically contemplates a lower annual license fee for brokers versus suppliers)
However, in terms of the intent of the bill's language, it is notable that other provisions in the same section to which brokers would be subject explicitly mention "brokers", and specifically use phrasing such as, "All energy brokers, energy marketers, and suppliers."
The term "broker" is missing from the language concerning the $5 million bond, suggesting an intent that brokers would not be subject to the $5 million bond. However, a clean-up may be needed to achieve such exemption, given the existing broad definition of "supplier" noted above
Also concerning the bond, unlike a prior bill, H.5151 would provide that the $5 million bond would be either "per retail license" or "per parent company of multiple marketers or suppliers". Prior bills did not include a specific provision allowing a parent to only post a single $5 million bond for multiple licensed entities
The bill states that the $5 million bond is required for such companies that "appl[y]" for a retail license (potentially opening the door for a grandfathering); however, because the DPU requires annual renewals of licenses, any grandfathering would be temporary, due to the need to apply for a renewed license (with the DPU specifically calling renewal filings "applications")
All brokers, energy marketers, and retail suppliers would be subject to an annual license fee not to exceed $10,000, H.5151 provides. The fee may be differentiated between energy brokers, energy marketers, and suppliers, the bill provides
Under the bill, any energy marketer shall be a legal agent of the supplier. No energy marketer may
sell electricity on behalf of a supplier unless such energy marketer has received
appropriate training directly from such supplier, H.5151 provides
H.5151 provides that the foregoing legal agent provisions, "shall not apply to third-party brokers or consultants or agents acting on behalf of customers that are compensated by the
customer as part of the customer’s electric contract price."
H.5151 would mandate that electric suppliers shall post at least one residential offer on the Energy Switch MA site (the bill is not explicit that C&I-only suppliers are excluded from this requirement)
H.5151 would require electric suppliers to report each residential rate to the DPU, including the number of low-income and non-low-income residential customers charged each rate included in
such list by rate class. The DPU would post on its website average and aggregate information from such rates
The bill makes clear that supplier data is to be posted only in aggregated or anonymized form, and the public posting shall not include supplier-specific pricing. A separate section of the bill requiring similar reporting from suppliers (and other energy providers) has been revised versus H.4744 to also make clear that such data shall be
deemed public information, "only in its aggregate form".
H.5151 would strike the current requirement that electricity default service shall be procured via "competitive bidding," instead providing that default service shall be procured through competitive bidding or, "through such other process approved by the department" [DPU], including procurements of varying lengths and in combination with other distribution companies."
H.5151 provides that "standard" default service rates for residential customers, excluding
TOU rates and monthly variable rates, shall be changed
not more than once every 6 months.
The bill would allow the DPU to create a "separate mechanism" for recovering certain charges, to be
itemized separately on a customer bill, with such charges including, but not limited to, "those in connection with the
wholesale electric markets as administered by ISO New England, Inc. or federal tariffs on
imports to such markets".
The bill would require retail suppliers to provide notice to the DPU, at least 30 days in advance, of any, "assignment or transfer of their supplier license."
The DPU would be empowered to deny or impose conditions on the transfer of the license
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Bill's $5 Million Bond Requirement For Retail License May Still Be Read As Including Brokers, With Court Precedent
February 24, 2026
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Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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