Understanding Your New WMGLD Bill

For information contact:

(781) 246-6363

(Wakefield, MA) – The Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (WMGLD) has announced that it will issue a new bill format and rate design which will take effect with its August billing schedule.  The new residential and commercial rates do not create an increase in WMGLD revenues.

            The new bills will provide a breakdown of the monthly charges between the cost of operations and the cost of wholesale gas and electricity purchases.  Ratepayers will see (1) a monthly Customer Charge, which represents the fixed costs of meter reading and billing, (2) a Distribution (for electricity) or Delivery (for gas) Charge, which reflects the cost of operations and maintenance of the distribution systems, and (3) an Energy or Gas Charge, which will serve as a dollar-for-dollar pass-through of the WMGLD’s market costs of gas and electricity.

            In addition to the new look, WMGLD rates have been redesigned, according to General Manager Peter Dion.  The department’s current system of declining tiered pricing based on usage volume will be replaced with a flat rate for all usage.  There will still be separate rate classes for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.  The WMGLD was the last Massachusetts utility to have a declining rate structure.

“Our rates will now be consistent with the way we purchase our products,” according to Dion.  “The new rates are designed to be revenue neutral, so the average customer bill should not change.  We have based the new structure on how most other utilities bill.” Dion said.

To help customers understand the new format and to answer basic questions, the WMGLD has placed a sample of the new bill design on its website, www.wmgld.com, under the link ”Understand Your New WMGLD Bill.”  Customers will also be receiving a bill insert with the same information.  The bill stuffer will also explain how to make sense of a new feature on bills that allows customers to see how much gas or electricity they used in the previous thirteen months as well as their average daily usage each month.

“The new bill will be easier to read and understand.  The historical usage table will provide a comparison of each month’s gas or electricity consumption over the past year and can help customers identify opportunities to save energy on a daily basis, The new bills will also include a return envelope which we hope will provide a new convenience to our customers that we were not offering before,” according to Dion.

“We are excited to be implementing these changes at this time and look forward to providing additional customer services as we expand the use of our new billing system,” Dion added.

For additional information, visit the WMGLD website, www.wmgld.com or call 781-246-6363.