Massachusetts regulators are still deciding whether National Grid can raise what it charges for natural gas delivery, and the outcome would land squarely in the middle of heating season. The Department of Public Utilities has not ruled on the case, but it has already put the higher rates on hold so its staff can pick apart the company’s numbers before any household sees a new bill.
A $342 Million Petition Waiting on a December Ruling
National Grid filed its petition with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on January 16, 2026, asking to raise base distribution rates for its Boston Gas and Colonial Gas divisions enough to generate roughly $342 million in additional annual revenue, according to the Department’s own case summary. About $198 million of that total is the transfer of already-completed gas system enhancement work, finished by December 31, 2024, onto base rates; net of that shift, National Grid put the real increase at roughly $144 million, or about a twelve percent rise in distribution revenue.
The company’s last rate increase came in 2021, under a separate case the agency still keeps on file as DPU 20-120. The current request is docketed as DPU 26-50, and the department suspended National Grid’s proposed rates rather than letting them take effect on the company’s preferred schedule. That suspension runs until December 1, 2026, the same date National Grid’s own filing lists as the effective date for the new charges if the petition is approved as requested.
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What Boston Gas and Colonial Gas Heating Customers Would See
Under the bill-impact tables National Grid attached to its petition, a typical Boston Gas residential heating customer — one using about 106 therms of gas a month during the winter season — would see a monthly bill increase of $23.66, or 8.4 percent, if the case is approved as filed. Colonial Gas heating customers, a separate legacy service territory under the same parent company, would see a steeper increase: $24.76 a month, or 9.4 percent, according to the notice of filing National Grid sent to the DPU.
Both figures apply specifically to the winter heating season, when gas usage and the dollar impact of a distribution-rate increase both peak. Neither number is final. Both remain contingent on a DPU decision that has not yet been made.
The Smaller, but Real, Increase for Non-Heating Households
Customers who use gas for cooking or water heating but not for winter heat, roughly 14 therms a month, would see a smaller dollar increase. Boston Gas non-heating customers would face a monthly increase of $4.99, or 9.3 percent, while Colonial Gas non-heating customers would see $5.14, or 10.0 percent, according to the impact tables filed in the DPU 26-50 docket record.
Commercial and industrial customers fall into a wider range. National Grid’s filing states that, depending on usage, rate class and whether a business would be reclassified under the company’s proposed rate consolidation, monthly bill impacts could run anywhere from a 37.5 percent decrease to a 37.8 percent increase.
Low-Income Discount Tiers Move in the Opposite Direction
Not every residential customer would see an increase. National Grid’s own tables show that low-income heating customers on Boston Gas, who use about 765 therms a year, could see anywhere from a 17.0 percent increase to a 65.0 percent decrease, depending on income and which discount tier a household falls into. Low-income non-heating customers on Boston Gas, who use about 164 therms a year, range from a 19.0 percent increase to a 64.0 percent decrease.
The spread is nearly identical on the Colonial Gas side: low-income heating customers there range from an 18.0 percent increase to a 65.0 percent decrease, and low-income non-heating customers range from a 20.0 percent increase to a 64.0 percent decrease. The size of the swing depends on exactly where a household’s income places it within the discount program the DPU oversees, a structure explained in the state’s own guide to reading a Massachusetts gas bill.
Why the Case Is Paused Until December 1
Massachusetts law gives the DPU specific instructions for cases like this one. Under Section 94 of Chapter 164 of the General Laws, the department must design base distribution rates using a cost-allocation method built on equalized rates of return across customer classes, and if that method would shift more than 10 percent of the impact onto any single class, the DPU has to phase the change in on a revenue-neutral basis rather than let it land all at once.
The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has also intervened in the case, a step state law allows in utility rate proceedings, and has asked the department for permission to spend up to $600,000 hiring outside experts to scrutinize National Grid’s numbers. If the DPU approves that spending, National Grid’s rates would ultimately cover those costs too, on top of whatever increase the department allows.
Working through all of this is what the current suspension is for. The department held evidentiary hearings on the case over 19 days beginning June 29, 2026, weighing written testimony and detailed cost data alongside National Grid’s separate request to adopt a five-year performance-based ratemaking plan that would let the company adjust rates annually through a revenue-cap formula instead of filing a new case each time. The docket’s own notice of filing lists Robert J. Humm as the attorney representing National Grid before the department, with comments and pleadings directed to DPU Secretary Peter A. Ray’s office under docket number 26-50. Until that record closes and the DPU rules, the $342 million request, and the December 1 date attached to it, remains exactly what National Grid asked for and nothing more.
A Petition Still Pending
Whatever the DPU decides, the ruling on docket 26-50 won’t arrive until after the December 1 suspension lifts, and nothing in the case tells a Massachusetts household what relief already exists if a higher bill does show up. Property tax bills keep arriving on their own separate schedule regardless of how a utility rate case turns out, and the state programs built to soften both kinds of fixed costs run on their own applications, their own income cutoffs and their own deadlines that a docket page won’t mention.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief available in Massachusetts, the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, and separate heating, cooling and home-repair help for households working through exactly this kind of rising fixed cost.
See the relief options and the application log and renewal calendar inside The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
AI-assisted research and drafting; reviewed by an editor.
