Frustrated by high heating bills? On Facebook, energy customers are venting together

When Elijah DeSousa noticed a spike in his energy bills, he turned to social media to see if others were experiencing the same thing.

"I have thousands of examples of customers who have been really monitoring their usage and their usages have been lower," said DeSousa, who lives in New Bedford. "The crux of it is the delivery charges, and when you look at the prices, I mean, nobody understands what they're looking at."

He created a Facebook group called Citizens Against Eversource, where customers discuss their energy bills.

"$2.43 in gas, $23 in delivery. I mean it would be cheaper for a guy to bring that gas to the house, you could DoorDash $2 worth of gas," he said laughing while showing a screenshot of a bill a group member shared with him.

Another showed a larger difference: "We've got a supply for gas of $374 dollars and a delivery fee of $776."

He said those kinds of amounts make him angry.

"It was getting to a boiling point where I started seeing all these bills, and then I started hearing some of the stories too online where, you know, somebody who may be 81 and on retirement talking about, 'We have to decide between heating the house to 55 degrees or eating dinner,' you know, on a daily basis, which, it sounds crazy to me that this is happening in America," DeSousa said.

Eversource spokesman William Hinkle said bills are being impacted by a sharp increase in usage coupled with recent rate adjustments that took effect on Nov. 1, a 20-30% increase depending on the location of the customer.

"There was an increased participation in the state's energy efficiency programs by natural gas customers which lead to an increase in the component of the delivery rate that is related to the energy efficiency programs," said Hinkle.

The energy efficiency programs run by Mass Save include heat pump adoption, weatherization, air sealing and insulation.

"This is something that everyone shares the cost in in Massachusetts and that's why it's so important that, if you are not participating in these programs, take advantage of them," said Hinkle. "If you are participating in these programs, you are ultimately using less energy, so your bill is lower than it otherwise would have been even though energy efficiency did impact your delivery costs."

Supply rate changes on May 1 and Nov. 1, implementing a six-month rate. Hinkle explained there is also a requirement that if the supply rate fluctuates by more than 5% in any given month, the supply cost also has to be adjusted.

"With that significant increase in the cost of gas in January, that 5% threshold was reached and there was an increase in the cost of gas that took effect Feb. 1," Hinkle said.

"The vast majority of the delivery charge is the vast pipeline network that we have," said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at clean energy research and advocacy organization Acadia Center. "Unfortunately, maintaining this sprawling gas pipeline network that we have is very expensive and unlikely that costs are going to go down in the near future."

He added that "it's important that the state do everything in its power to kind of transition off of the gas system as soon as we can for heating."

As for customers who are still seeing expensive bills, despite making an effort to keep the heat down, Hinkle says usage is also impacted by the temperature outside.

"Even if you don't do anything differently, you don't change your thermostat — say you keep it set at a very brisk 66 degrees in the winter and you don't change it no matter how cold it is outside — it takes more energy to get to that setting as the temperature decreases. So, if it's 10 degrees outside, you're going to use more energy to get to that setting than if its 30 degrees outside."

DeSousa is encouraging members of his Facebook group to speak up and reach out to their state representatives. He started a petition calling for the state to halt and review the rate hikes.

Eversource urges anyone who needs help paying their energy bill to call 866-861-6225 or 800-688-6160 or visit eversource.com/BillHelp to learn more about assistance programs and payment plans. The company is also holding free webinars (advanced registration required) about the options on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 to 2 p.m.