Massachusetts 2025-2026 Regular Session

Massachusetts House Bill H3581 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

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2	2	HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3415 FILED ON: 1/17/2025
3	3	HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 3581
4	4	The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
5	5	_________________
6	6	PRESENTED BY:
7	7	Tommy Vitolo
8	8	_________________
9	9	To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
10	10	Court assembled:
11	11	The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
12	12	An Act supporting electrical load aggregation programs in the Commonwealth.
13	13	_______________
14	14	PETITION OF:
15	15	NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :DATE ADDED:Tommy Vitolo15th Norfolk1/17/2025 1 of 4
16	16	HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3415 FILED ON: 1/17/2025
17	17	HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 3581
18	18	By Representative Vitolo of Brookline, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3581) of
19	19	Tommy Vitolo relative to electrical load aggregation programs. Telecommunications, Utilities
20	20	and Energy.
21	21	The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
22	22	_______________
23	23	In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
24	24	(2025-2026)
25	25	_______________
26	26	An Act supporting electrical load aggregation programs in the Commonwealth.
27	27	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
28	28	of the same, as follows:
29	29	1 SECTION 1. It is hereby found and declared that electrical load aggregation programs
30	30	2empower municipalities to create new electricity supply offerings that provide customized
31	31	3solutions addressing their consumers’ needs and reflecting the municipality’s capabilities. Such
32	32	4solutions may provide benefits including, but not limited to, electricity cost control, reduction of
33	33	5greenhouse gas emissions, support for renewable energy development and facilitation of
34	34	6beneficial electrification. Further, electrical load aggregation programs may provide residential
35	35	7and small business consumers access to solutions that they could not find otherwise. For
36	36	8municipalities to effectively offer such solutions, they must be empowered both to create and
37	37	9adapt their electrical load aggregation programs in a timely manner and to communicate with the
38	38	10electricity consumers within their community using methods that reflect local needs and
39	39	11preferences. Therefore, it is found that it is in the public interest to promote electrical load
40	40	12aggregation programs through enactment of the following statutory changes. 2 of 4
41	41	13 SECTION 2. Section 7, clause twenty-six of chapter 4 of the General Laws, as appearing
42	42	14in the 2022 official edition, is hereby amended by inserting the following:
43	43	15 (w) All data associated with an individual electricity consumer obtained by a public
44	44	16aggregator, as defined in section 1 of Chapter 164.
45	45	17 SECTION 3. Section 134 of chapter 164 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022
46	46	18official edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (a) paragraph 6 and inserting in
47	47	19place thereof the following:
48	48	20 It shall be the duty of the aggregated entity to fully inform participating ratepayers in
49	49	21advance of automatic enrollment that they are to be automatically enrolled and that they have the
50	50	22right to opt-out of the aggregated entity without penalty. In addition, such disclosure shall
51	51	23prominently state all charges to be made and shall include full disclosure of the basic service
52	52	24rate, how to access it, and the fact that it is available to them without penalty. The department of
53	53	25energy resources shall furnish, without charge, to any citizen a list of all other supply options
54	54	26available to them in a meaningful format that shall enable comparison of price and product. After
55	55	27obtaining approval of its plan, the aggregated entity may deliver information and educational
56	56	28materials regarding its program to each consumer within the municipality or municipalities. To
57	57	29enable such delivery, the electric distribution company shall provide to such aggregated entity a
58	58	30current list of the names, mailing addresses, email addresses, service addresses and rate classes
59	59	31of all electric consumers taking distribution service within the municipality or municipalities. To
60	60	32facilitate the automatic enrollment and ratepayer notification, the electric distribution company
61	61	33shall identify in such data all electric accounts within the municipality that are not otherwise
62	62	34receiving generation service from a competitive supplier and provide such additional consumer 3 of 4
63	63	35information necessary for such automatic enrollment; provided, however, that any customer may
64	64	36request that their name, mailing address and account number not be shared with the municipality.
65	65	37To monitor program participation, the electric distribution company shall identify in such data
66	66	38those consumers that are participating in the electrical load aggregation program. To enable
67	67	39development of and bidding for electric energy and energy-related services, the electric
68	68	40distribution company shall provide all historical usage and demand information, including
69	69	41advanced metering data if collected by the consumer’s meter, for the preceding 24 months for
70	70	42consumers eligible for automatic enrollment as well as for participating consumers. The
71	71	43aggregated entity may use such data only in connection with the aggregation program and for no
72	72	44other purpose. Further, the aggregated entity may only use email addresses provided in such data
73	73	45for communications on behalf of the electrical load aggregation program. All data associated
74	74	46with an individual electricity consumer obtained by the aggregated entity shall be exempt from
75	75	47the definition of a “public record” under M.G.L. c.4 §7 and the aggregated entity shall protect
76	76	48such data as confidential. The aggregated entity shall not share, disclose, or otherwise make
77	77	49accessible to any third party, including any municipal government, such data except where
78	78	50directly necessary in its implementation of the electrical load aggregation program and where
79	79	51subject to non-disclosure requirements.
80	80	52 SECTION 4. Section 116C of chapter 164 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2024
81	81	53official edition, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (b) and inserting in place thereof
82	82	54the following:
83	83	55 (b) A supplier or other third party shall be entitled to access detailed advanced metering
84	84	56infrastructure customer data from the centralized data repository, subject to appropriate customer
85	85	57approval and protections. For the avoidance of doubt, municipal aggregators may access detailed 4 of 4
86	86	58advanced metering data about individual accounts enrolled with the municipal aggregation and
87	87	59eligible for automatic enrollment. Advanced metering infrastructure data may include, but shall
88	88	60not be limited to, customer billing period usage data, peak demand, supplier information and
89	89	61relevant account information.
90	90	62 SECTION 5. Section 1D of chapter 164 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022
91	91	63official edition, is hereby amended by inserting in line 22 after the word “parties.” the following:
92	92	64 The single bill option from electric utilities shall be available to all non-utility suppliers
93	93	65as rate-ready, in which the utility calculates the energy-related charges based on supplier-
94	94	66provided inputs for agreed upon parameters. At such time that rate-ready billing for advanced
95	95	67metering infrastructure is available, the single bill option from electric utilities shall also be
96	96	68available as bill-ready, in which the utility provides the supplier with metered usage and the
97	97	69supplier calculates the energy-related charges and provides such charges to the utility. The bill-
98	98	70ready single bill shall be available only to supply contracts for municipal aggregators and for
99	99	71large commercial and industrial customers.