Why Is Electricity So Expensive in Massachusetts?
Rate data through July 2026 (the latest month EIA has published) · Updated September 30, 2026
As of July 2026, Massachusetts's average residential electricity rate is 30.49¢/kWh, the 4th-highest of the 51 states and DC and 67% above the U.S. average of 18.31¢/kWh, per EIA data. The average monthly bill is $224.86 at 738 kWh of usage. The measured reasons are below, each with its source and date; where a claim is an association rather than a measured cost, this page says so.
In 2024, Massachusetts residential energy expenditure equaled 2.5% of aggregate household income, computed from EIA SEDS and Census ACS B19025. At 2024 prices, Massachusetts households paid $1,244 per year more than they would have at national-average prices for the home energy they actually used; the comparison holds usage fixed and is an accounting split, not a policy estimate. See the all-state energy-poverty reference page.
The ten-year picture
Source: EIA retail sales, residential sector, monthly (rate = revenue ÷ sales). Massachusetts detail, including the last twelve months as a table, is on the Massachusetts rates page.
What Massachusetts's electricity is made from
| Source | Share of in-state generation, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Natural gas | 77.5% |
| Small-scale (rooftop) solar | 19.4% |
| Utility-scale solar | 10.2% |
| Hydropower | 4.2% |
| Biomass and waste | 4.4% |
Computed from EIA electric-power operational data (all sectors, including small-scale solar), 2024. Shares can exceed or fall short of 100% in combination because only the largest sources are listed. Shares of in-state generation, which is small relative to consumption: Massachusetts imported power equal to about 65% of its retail sales in 2024 (EIA state energy data), so regional New England market prices matter as much as in-state plants.
The measured drivers
A gas-dependent regional market with winter pipeline constraints
In-state generation is 77.5% natural gas (2024, EIA), and the New England market Massachusetts buys most of its power from is similarly gas-heavy. Pipeline capacity into New England routinely maxes out in cold weather, pushing regional gas and wholesale electricity prices up together (EIA), and those costs pass into the retail bills behind the region's rates.
The country's third-highest renewable-mandate compliance cost
Compliance with Massachusetts' renewable portfolio and clean-energy standards cost the equivalent of 11.1% of the average electric bill in 2024, the third-highest share in the country after DC and New Jersey, up from 7.7% in 2016 (Barbose, LBNL, RPS Status Update, 2025). This is a measured compliance cost from utility filings, not a modeled estimate.
Rising regional delivery costs
ISO New England transmission costs rose about 0.8 cents per kilowatt-hour in real terms over 2019–2025 (LBNL/Brattle, 2026 Edition; a regional series). Distribution charges set in state rate cases come on top; National Grid's pending Massachusetts gas case and recent electric rate activity are tracked on our rate-increase page.
The in-state spread
The state average also hides differences between utilities. Among Massachusetts's large utilities (at least 50,000 residential customers), Massachusetts Electric Co averages 35.07¢/kWh while NSTAR Electric Company averages 20.10¢/kWh, a ratio of 1.7× (July 2026, computed from EIA-861M). Which utility serves you matters as much as which state you live in; the Massachusetts page lists them all.
Analysis: what a 50-state comparison shows. Across all 50 states in 2025 data, the strongest cross-state correlates of high rate levels are deep net-metering penetration (Massachusetts: 8.7% of retail sales offset in 2024, per LBNL) and long memory: states that were expensive in 2001 are almost all expensive today. Higher utility-scale wind and solar shares are associated with lower average prices, and belonging to a regional wholesale market (RTO) shows no statistically significant effect. These are associations across states, not causal estimates: high prices themselves push customers toward rooftop solar, so part of the association runs in reverse. One directly measured policy cost: renewable-standard compliance equal to 11.1% of the average bill in 2024 (Barbose, LBNL, 2025).
Questions people ask
Why is electricity so expensive in Massachusetts?
As of July 2026, Massachusetts's average residential rate is 30.49¢/kWh, the 4th-highest of the 51 states and DC and 67% above the U.S. average of 18.31¢/kWh (EIA). In-state generation is 77.5% natural gas (2024, EIA), and the New England market Massachusetts buys most of its power from is similarly gas-heavy.
How much have Massachusetts electricity rates gone up?
+1.4% over the past year and +33.3% over five years; over ten years, from 18.02¢ in July 2016 to 30.49¢/kWh (+69%, vs +44% for the U.S. average), per EIA monthly data.
What is the average electric bill in Massachusetts?
$224.86 per month as of July 2026, at average usage of 738 kWh, versus $212.44 nationally at 1160 kWh. Rates and usage move bills in opposite directions, which is why bill and rate rankings differ.
Related pages
- Massachusetts electricity rates: the full monthly data, utilities, and bill estimator
- How Massachusetts's recent increases rank, with the docket-verified rate-case ledger
- Why is my electric bill so high?, including the bill-change checker
- Home-energy expenditure as a share of statewide household income
- Look up your utility by ZIP code