Public power shines light on prices with tour of Holyoke Gas & Electric hydro plant
HOLYOKE — Municipal electric utilities — like those in Holyoke, Westfield, Chicopee, South Hadley and even tiny Chester and Russell — sell electricity for about half what their neighboring investor-owned utilities and they want to keep it that way.
And those utilities want people — and businesses — to know it. They also want the freedom to keep doing it.
"We don't have any shareholders," said Daniel Faille, general manager of Chicopee Electric Light. "None of the money goes out of state. None of it goes on the stock market. It all stays local."
Local, too, are decisions, said Joe Mitchell, the assistant general manager at Westfield Gas & Electric. Four days a week people at local municipal electric utilities are on the phone deciding whether to buy power, hold off buying power or to hedge a bet against some market swing.
A view from the main building looking towards Holyoke on the right and South Hadley on the Left. The Holyoke Dam was completed in 1900 and is now operated by Holyoke Gas and Electric. Oct. 17, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
"Investor-owned utilities go out twice a year," Mitchell said.
The municipal utilities are also vertically integrated, controlling generation, transmission and house-by-house distribution.
For municipals, the price outlook for winter looks stable, said Thomas P. Flaherty, general manager of the Westfield Gas & Electric.
Municipal utilities across the state averaged $129 a month per 750 kilowatt hours in 2024. That's compared – according to information the public utilities shared Friday – an average of $251 in Eversource' Western Massachusetts territory and $267 for National Grid.
The average suburban home in Massachusetts uses about 750 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.
"When you say people are talking about utility bills, you mean complaining," Faille said. "And those people aren't in a municipal light plant territory."
Western Massachusetts municipal utilities and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. in Ludlow hosted a power briefing Friday for businesses and legislators complete with a tour of the Robert Barrett Fishway and the Holyoke Gas & Electric hydro plant.
Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. provides services, including generation, to the state's 41 municipal utilities.
The Holyoke Dam is a granite dam built in tandem with the Holyoke Canal System at Hadley Falls on the Connecticut River, between Holyoke and South Hadley. It is operated by Holyoke Gas and Electric. Oct. 17, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
They also heard from businesses, including Valley Malt in Holyoke — located right across the street from the fishway —from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Chicopee the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke and from precision manufacturer Jarvis Surgical in Westfield.
Flaherty said municipal utilities want to avoid the regulations investor-owned utilities face, including all the surcharges listed on the bills the investor-owned utilities send customers. The fees on those bills fund electric vehicle charging programs or home solar programs.
"We do that already," he said.
Westfield already meets the goal of getting more than half its power from sources that do not emit carbon —that's solar, hydro and fractional ownership of nuclear plants in New Hampshire and Connecticut.
Stories by Jim Kinney
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