By Kallejhay Terrelonge, Belmont Voice correspondent
Belmont Light raised its residential electricity rate by 6% on March 1, and residents say the increase has compounded a year of climbing energy costs that are straining household budgets.
Sue Choquette, 60, a Belmont renter since 2021, opened her January bill and found a $458.71 charge, up about $70 from the same month last year. She attributed the increase partly to colder weather but also to energy costs that crept higher throughout the year.
“It really just kind of eats away at your savings,” Choquette said. “Your money doesn’t go as far, basically, because your pay is not increasing at the percentage that everything else is going up.”
The mounting costs forced Choquette to trim her spending. Where she once went out to eat roughly three times a week, she now limits herself to about once a week. Electricity, she said, is just one piece of a larger financial strain.
“Gas, electricity, it’s all been really high this year,” she said. “To some, $70 might seem small, but everything is going up, and it adds up.”
Belmont Light, the town’s municipal utility, raised its residential electricity rate to about $0.246 per kilowatt-hour last month, citing higher transmission costs and adjusted conservation charges. The Municipal Light Board approved the increase at a Jan. 13 public hearing. Supporting documents, minutes, and other materials are available on the utility’s website.
Belmont Light sets its rates locally, unlike investor-owned utilities such as National Grid or Eversource, where the state Department of Public Utilities plays a larger regulatory role. Even after the increase, Belmont Light’s rate remains below the statewide average. Massachusetts electricity costs rank among the highest in the nation. The utility does not impose seasonal rate hikes during the winter, unlike some investor-owned providers.
Still, residents say the rate hike compounds costs that were already rising.
Larry Berger, 76, a retired public health worker, moved to Belmont from Albuquerque, New Mexico, last September with his wife. He said he quickly adjusted his habits to control costs.
“We’re already making sure we walk around the house to turn out lights and turn down the heat at night,” he said. “You try to be aware of the high cost of energy.”
Belmont costs more than Albuquerque in almost every category, he said, from housing to food to transportation.
Kathy Keohane, 67, said she invested in energy efficiency upgrades: solar panels, heat pumps and LED lighting. Even so, her bills continue to climb. Keohane said Belmont Light should expand its time-of-use programs, which allow customers to shift electricity consumption to off-peak hours when rates are lower.
“We’re moving toward green energy,” Keohane said, “but it doesn’t fully shield us from rising costs.”
Choquette said her concern extends beyond this year’s bill to what comes next.
“Everyone wants clean, reliable energy,” she said, “but we need to understand the cost, the timing, and how it’s governed. Otherwise, it hits us—the people—hardest.”
Kallejhay Terrelonge is a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Belmont Voice and other news organizations in the Boston area.