National Grid Ditches Plan to Charge Interest on Massachusetts Customers’ Gas Bill Reductions

National Grid heard from customers loud and clear that people wouldn't tolerate interest fees tacked on to their natural gas bill reductions in March and April. After the public cried foul on a proposed plan to charge an interest rate of 4.37% on bill reductions, National Grid retreated from its decision. The company now plans to cut customer gas bills by 10% in March and April and will forego interest charges when it recovers its money during the summer.

On Monday, Feb. 24, NewsCenter 5 reported that Boston's three major natural gas utility providers — Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil — would drop their customers' bills by an average of 10% for the next two months. The companies said they were ordered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to make this reduction due to a winter when gas bills skyrocketed, fueled by high fuel delivery charges.

The fuel providers agreed to recovering the money customers would have paid them now during the warmer months of the year. Eversource and Unitil both said they would cut gas bills by about 10% in March and April and would not charge interest. National Grid, however, was the only company that said it would charge its customers interest on their bill reductions. 

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, which still has to approve the bill reduction plan, said the department received hundreds of communications from National Grid customers who were enraged at the company's interest-collection decision. Customers said they would rather pay now rather than incur high interest charges later.

On Thursday evening, Feb. 27, National Grid officials said they were responding to customer feedback by abandoning their plan to collect interest on their customers' March and April gas bill payments.