National Grid ordered to fix

The Department of Public Utilities is ordering National Grid to fix “severe billing errors” affecting thousands of its gas customers in Massachusetts.

The agency says about 35,000 gas customers did not get their monthly gas bills after Nov. 1 because of a billing system error, and then later they received multiple bills at once. And there are about 3,000 customers who still have not gotten any delayed gas bills and they were set to be on the hook for up to six months’ worth of bills.

DPU said this wasn’t fair to those customers because they didn’t get a chance to see that their bill was high and then limit their usage. 

“It is simply unfair to expect customers to pay multiple months’ worth of bills that were not rendered timely,” the department said in a letter to National Grid New England president Lisa Wieland.

National Grid late bills

The letter says “Massachusetts ratepayers have endured a cold winter marked by high rates and high bills.” Earlier in March, Gov. Maura Healey announced most customers will see a $50 discount on their electricity bills.   

National Grid says it will cooperate with the order and won’t collect more than 60 days of outstanding bill charges. Customers who paid bills that were more than 60 days old will receive a credit, the company said.

“Affordability is a core component of our mission to provide safe, reliable energy and we sincerely apologize to our customers impacted by this billing issue,” National Grid said in a statement. 

National Grid refunds

In a separate matter, the department is fining National Grid $15 million for service quality failures from 2023. 

National Grid is proposing to return that money to customers via a one-time payment in May.