Green Your Electricity

At Sustainable Milton, we spend a lot of time thinking about how Milton residents can take action to reduce the impacts of Climate Change. We strongly encourage every Milton resident to opt into the Milton 100% Green option in Milton’s Community Electricity Aggregation program.

In this period of volatile energy prices, you will have the confidence of a stable, competitive electricity price that’s fixed until December 2027. You’ll also know that every kilowatt-hour your household uses is matched by a kilowatt-hour of clean, renewable energy delivered into the New England grid, which is the foundation of Massachusetts’s plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. For a typical Milton household, the extra cost per month is less than $10 / month and is also tax deductible as a charitable donation if you itemize.

How to Sign Up:

It takes only a few minutes to sign up on the Milton CEA website . To opt in to the 100% Green electricity program, have your most recent electric bill handy and fill out the form at https://miltoncea.com/enroll-or-change-your-product/ . The image below shows where to find the relevant information on your Eversource bill.

What does it cost?

​ If you are not currently enrolled in the Milton CEA program prices for the supply portion of your Eversource bill, it’s possible you could save money on your electric bill by enrolling in Green 100. Use the CEA website’s calculator tool to get an authoritative estimate of costs based on your own electricity usage, then read on for some help interpreting the results.

Understanding Supply vs Delivery rates and Eversource Basic Service

Your electricity bill has two components: a supply charge and a delivery charge. The delivery charge pays for the maintenance of the grid infrastructure that gets electric power to your home, and is the same for all customers in Eversource’s service region regardless of their electricity supplier.

• From August 1st, 2024 to January 31st, 2025, Eversource’s Basic Service electricity supply price for residential customers is 15.772 ¢/kWh.
• This is in addition to the delivery price charged to all Eversource customers regardless of their supplier choice, currently between 21-22 ¢/kWh depending on your heating source.
• The total electricity price for Eversource Basic Service is around 37.4 ¢/kWh

Impact of Milton CEA participation

Enrolling in Milton CEA changes your electricity supplier, and gives you a fixed supply rate for three years. The delivery rate will still change whenever Eversource updates it, usually every 6 months. The program options differ by how much additional renewable energy they offer above Massachusett’s minimum requirement. All the program options of Milton CEA currently offer a lower supply rate than Eversource Basic Service.

Unless they specifically opted out, Milton residents were automatically enrolled in the default Milton Green plan. The supply rate for Milton Green is 13.983 ¢/kWh for a total cost including delivery of 35.693 ¢/kWh. Thanks to the Milton CEA program, an average Milton household using 707 kWh/month saved $851 relative to Eversource Basic Service over the course of 2023.

The Milton 100% Green plan charges 14.859 ¢/kWh, so opting up would cost an average household in the Milton Green plan an extra $6.19 / month compared to Milton Green. Despite the extra cost, they would still save $6.10 / month compared to Eversource Basic Service.

Given the urgency of the climate crisis, the centrality of clean electricity in the state’s Net-Zero by 2050 plans, and the trustworthiness and transparency of the Milton CEA program, we think opting up to Milton 100% Green would be an excellent addition to your household’s charitable giving budget. Like other charitable giving, the cost of the extra Green Electricity in the CEA program is tax deductible if you itemize deductions. Future savings cannot be guaranteed once Eversource Basic Service prices change after 1/1/25, but unlike many supply programs advertised in the mail, customers can leave the CEA program at any time without penalty.

Have you already opted up?

You rock! Post on our Facebook Group to let your neighbors know! We’d also love to give you a biodegradable lawn sign to raise awareness with your neighbors. Fill out this google form to request one.

Don’t forget that the cost of the additional renewable energy provided through Milton Community Electricity Aggregation is eligible for a federal tax deduction. To receive a receipt to file with your taxes, you must fill out the form here . Hard copy letters are not being mailed.

Am I eligible to participate?

Anyone who pays for electricity service to a Milton building can participate. If you currently purchase electricity from a supplier other than Eversource or Milton CEA, switching fees could apply, so be sure to review your current supplier contract details.

If you are not eligible for Milton CEA, consider purchasing Green Electricity through the Green Powered Program of Green Energy Consumers Alliance (GECA). GECA is the supplier of Green Electricity for Milton CEA, so you are getting the exact same product through a different channel.

How does “green electricity” work?

While it’s not physically possible to track an electron from a power plant to your house, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are the accepted way to track renewable energy use. For each megawatt-hour generated at a renewable energy facility, one REC is created, and only the person who purchases and retires that REC can claim to have “consumed” that megawatt-hour. The Massachusetts renewable portfolio standard requires Eversource to deliver 24% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2024, which means they must purchase RECs equivalent to 24% of the megawatt-hours they supply to their customers. By purchasing Massachusetts Class I RECs, which come only from solar, wind, anaerobic digestion and low-impact hydro located within New England, you ensure that additional clean energy beyond the minimum state requirement is delivered to our grid. You can learn more about this and see a map of the facilities where the energy is generated here

Does this program make a difference?

Yes! Unlike some misleading third-party electricity suppliers , Milton CEA purchases only high-quality Class I RECs from New England, making it a genuinely green option. By choosing the Milton 100% Green option, customers actively support renewable energy projects while enjoying stable prices.

How does it help manage bills?

By participating in the Milton CEA program, customers benefit from a three-year fixed-price contract with an energy supplier. The first contract period launched in September 2021 and ended November 2024. The current rates are fixed from November 2024 to December 2027. Unlike Eversource’s Basic Service, which changes every six months based on market prices, Milton CEA offers stable prices 3 years at a time. And, although future savings cannot be guaranteed, to date Milton CEA prices have consistently been lower than the Eversource Basic Service rate.

How do I know if I’m participating in the Milton CEA?

After you enroll, we recommend double checking your bill after a month or two because we have heard many stories from residents who thought they opted into Green 100 but were not actually enrolled. Check your most recent Eversource electric bill under “Total Charges for Electricity”, as shown in the sample bill above. If you are enrolled in Milton CEA, the Supplier will be listed as “Direct Energy”. To verify that you are enrolled in the correct plan option, cecking the supply rate. If you are in Green 100, it should show 14.859 ¢/kWh.