Massachusetts Is Taking the Solar Charge Off Your Electric Bill for Three Months. You're Still Paying It.

If you pay a Massachusetts electric bill, a charge that funds other people’s solar panels is coming off it for January, February and March.

Don’t celebrate too hard. You’re still paying it. The money just comes out of a different pocket.

What Beacon Hill did

On October 5, Governor Maura Healey declared a State of Energy Emergency. Heating oil hit $6.08 a gallon as of September 28, up 73% from $3.52 a year earlier, according to her office.

The headline bill move: the state will “transfer $80 million in state funding to eliminate the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program charge” from residential and commercial electric bills for three months. The order also cuts the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard by 50% this winter, worth an estimated $20 million more. Healey’s office says the plan lowers bills for about 85% of ratepayers.

Read the state’s own description of SMART: it “supports incentives for qualifying solar projects across Massachusetts and is funded through a charge on electric customers.”

Translation: if you don’t have panels, you’ve been helping pay for your neighbor’s. That’s the program’s funding model, in the governor’s own press release.

The math on your bill

The state didn’t publish a per-household number, so we ran one. The EIA counts about 3.47 million residential and commercial electric accounts in Massachusetts for 2025. Take 85% of that, about 2.95 million, and divide $80 million across it.

That’s roughly $27 per account for the whole quarter. About $9 a month.

A typical home probably sees less, because commercial accounts use more power and carry a bigger share of the charge. Real money, but small.

And here’s the catch. That $80 million is “state funding.” The state doesn’t have a money tree. Its budget runs mostly on what it collects from you. Moving a charge from your electric bill to the general fund changes which statement it shows up on. It doesn’t make it free.

There’s a useful number hiding in there too: by the state’s own math, the residential and commercial SMART bill runs about $27 million a month in winter. That’s what the incentive costs, spread across everyone’s bill, whether or not you own a single panel.

What to do

If you already get SMART payments, or your installer has an application in, you don’t need to do anything. The state says the program keeps running. Only the funding source changes for three months.

Pull up your December bill now, then compare it with the bills covering January through March usage. If you’re with Eversource, National Grid or Unitil and the charges didn’t drop, call the utility and ask where the SMART relief went.

If you heat with oil, check the state’s new benefit at mass.gov/heatinghelp. A family of four earning between $103,049 and $171,749 may qualify for up to $680, starting in December.

Shopping for panels? Ignore the noise. A three-month funding swap doesn’t change your payback. Your roof, your usage and your quote do. Run them through our solar calculator, read how utility fixed charges eat into solar savings, and if you’re a Massachusetts buyer, check the $225 interconnection fee change before you sign. Our solar hub and best solar picks cover the rest.

Verdict: a small, real break on your winter bill, paid for by you anyway. Take it. Just don’t call it free.

The detail

The order runs January through March 2027. Our per-account figure is an average across residential and commercial accounts using EIA’s 2025 customer counts and the 85% reach the state cites. Your utility’s actual bill credit could differ. SMART runs only through the three investor-owned utilities, Eversource, National Grid and Unitil, according to MassCEC. If your town has a municipal light plant, you aren’t in SMART, so this particular break doesn’t reach your bill.

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