National Grid

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Quincy city councilors cautioned residents about a water main-break insurance policy that they said is unnecessary and costly. According to DPW Commissioner Daniel Raymondi, who received a solicitation himself from HomeServe USA, signing up for the policy just doesn't make sense. "I would caution people to read it, and have loved ones review it. In my own experience, living at my house for 40 years, I have had no issues with water delivery system," he said at the council's meeting on Monday.

The size of the average ratepayer's monthly electric bill in Massachusetts has shrunk to a six-year low, as utilities reduce rates because falling natural gas prices have made it cheaper to produce power, state energy officials said Thursday. State data show that, on average, the average residential utility customer is now paying about $112 a month for electricity, down roughly 25 percent since 2006 when the cost was about $150 a month. The savings come as natural gas prices hover around their lowest point in about a decade.

The size of the average ratepayer's monthly electric bill in Massachusetts has shrunk to a six-year low, as utilities reduce rates because falling natural gas prices have made it cheaper to produce power, state energy officials said Thursday. State data show that, on average, the average residential utility customer is now paying about $112 a month for electricity, down roughly 25 percent since 2006 when the cost was about $150 a month. The savings come as natural gas prices hover around their lowest point in about a decade.

Some Boston area residents may wake up Wednesday to an alarming sight: a dramatic flame coming from a natural gas pipeline in Everett, but the public won't be in any danger, National Grid said today. The flame, which will be accompanied by a "loud blowing noise," will come as the company burns off extra gas before inspecting and cleaning the pipeline, the company said in a statement. The operation will begin at 6 a.m. on Rover Street in Everett. "While this may be visually dramatic, the natural gas purging process is conducted by...

Massachusetts ratepayers could soon see their electricity bills shrink as the lowest natural gas prices in a decade make it cheaper to produce power. Nearly 60 percent of the state's electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants, and utilities - which have been paying less to buy that power - are passing the savings on to consumers. NStar, now a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities of Boston and Hartford, asked state regulators on Monday to approve a nearly 16 percent cut in power rates for its 1.1 million electricity customers.

A Boston group that for years has been scouting sites for a 6,500-seat minor league baseball stadium now is eyeing a 6.4-acre parcel near Malden center, the current site of a National Grid gas operations facility. Boston Baseball Field of Dreams, led by lawyer Alex Bok, is one of five private entities to express interest in the Commercial Street property across from the Orange Line/Malden Center MBTA station. The minor league team would compete in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, where about 40 percent of the players are former major leaguers, Bok said.

Everybody went a little nuts a couple of weeks ago when the lights went out in the Back Bay. Good thing the problem was the electricity, not the gas. "Gas is a whole different thing," says Joe Kirylo, and he should know because for 32 years his job has been to make sure gas is more a utility than a liability. He says that's getting harder to do as National Grid guts the union whose workers inspect and maintain the gas lines, replacing them with lower-paid workers with less training and experience.

Several hundred people attended a meeting at Foxborough High School last week to voice complaints about National Grid's lack of preparedness for a pair of storms in recent months that caused prolonged power outages. The utility sent Kathy Lyford, vice president of New England operations, to hear the complaints and respond to them. Lyford defended the company's response to the storm, but also said she would explore specific questions and provide answers. - Michele Morgan Bolton

The Malden Redevelopment Authority has issued a request for proposals to redevelop a 6.4-acre site owned by National Grid at 100 Commercial St. The utility plans to relocate its gas operations from the site to an electric distribution facility it owns on Medford Street. The company is exploring future uses for the Commercial Street site, under a plan in which the authority would lease the parcel, then sublease it to a developer. The proposal asks potential developers to describe how their project would benefit downtown Malden.

Attorney General Martha Coakley asked state regulators yesterday to reject National Grid’s request for a $111 million rate increase for 1.2 million Massachusetts electric customers, saying it was “neither warranted nor justified.’’ Coakley said the Department of Public Utilities should instead move to reduce National Grid’s rates by $36.4 million. “At a time when many consumers in Massachusetts are experiencing layoffs or are taking home smaller paychecks, National Grid is seeking to improve its own bottom line with a massive rate hike and rate plan that almost exclusively...

Massachusetts ratepayers could soon see their electricity bills shrink as the lowest natural gas prices in a decade make it cheaper to produce power. Nearly 60 percent of the state's electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants, and utilities - which have been paying less to buy that power - are passing the savings on to consumers. NStar, now a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities of Boston and Hartford, asked state regulators on Monday to approve a nearly 16 percent cut in power rates for its 1.1 million electricity customers.

Feted at Thursday night's Museum of Science gala, its third annual "Science Behind the Stars" soiree honoring achievement in STEM education (science, technology, engineering, math), were Governor Deval Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, and Intel Corp. chair Jane Shaw. The event drew an array of business and tech luminaries, among them ex-Genzyme chief Henri Tremeer, current Genzyme head David Meeker, National Grid president Marcy Reed, BJ's Wholesale Club chief exec Laura Sen, and "Chronicle" reporter-producer Shayna Seymour, who served as emcee.

The public is invited to the Avon Arbor Day Celebration on Friday at 11 a.m. at the Avon Public Library, 280 West Main St. Selectman Robert Brady and state Senator Brian Joyce are scheduled to speak, and National Grid will plant three evergreen trees on the library grounds, according to Town Administrator Michael McCue. McCue said that last year National Grid donated and planted two magnolias and a cherry tree in the Avon Middle-High School courtyard. "I hope it is a tradition we can keep up for years," he said.

A Westford family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against National Grid following an August 2011 incident in which a woman was crushed to death by a backhoe that fell off a trailer and landed on the family's van on Interstate 495 in Southborough. Sharon Wang, her two children, and her mother, Xiaoyun Jiang, were trapped inside their Toyota Sienna minivan when a National Grid supervisor lost control of a company-owned dump truck that was towing the backhoe on a flatbed trailer.

EnerNOC Inc. stock rose after National Grid hired the provider of energy management solutions to manage natural gas consumption at about 4,000 commercial, institutional, and industrial sites in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Boston company will provide the utility with wireless hardware that automates fuel switching at the enrolled customer sites.

National Grid, which delivers electricity to 3.3 million customers in New England and New York, said it has awarded $5.6 million to the University of Massachusetts Medical School for the expansion of the school's power plant. National Grid said the award is the largest incentive of its kind ever given by the company in Massachusetts. The incentive is earmarked for "a high-efficiency, 7.5-megawatt, gas-fired combustion turbine and an associated heat recovery system that will boost the medical school's capacity to generate electricity on its Worcester...

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent National Grid received three additional grants of location for gas main work in Braintree, adding more projects to the ever-growing list of work the company is doing in the South Shore town. In the past five years, the work has been extensive, with National Grid completing 16 projects in 2007, nine projects in 2008, 32 projects in 2009, 16 in 2010, and 15 in 2011. In total, the company, which operates gas and water mains in the town, has conducted 8.84 miles of work from 2007 through 2011, and already has three projects just five days in 2012.