Collaborative Agreement Reached to Abandon Interest Charges on Winter Bill Deferrals

JANUARY 29, 2026

Through a collaborative effort amongst the Administration and Legislature, Governor Healey announced on Wednesday, January 28th that all carrying or interest costs on winter utility bill relief would be waived.

In the announcement, the Governor offered the following statement: “Bills are too high and customers can’t wait for relief. That’s why I acted to get $180 million off winter electric bills and called on the utilities to help provide immediate relief -- including waiving interest charges,” said Governor Healey. “After seeing what they proposed, I again called on the utilities today to waive interest charges and they have agreed. Customers need relief and we’re going to continue to push for it. That includes our energy affordability legislation which creates more accountability for utilities, gets charges off bills, and drives down costs."

Prior to this announcement, Senator Bill Driscoll Jr. (D-Milton) joined over half of his colleagues in the Senate in signing a letter that called on the rejection of any proposal by a utility company to charge consumers interest on their payment deferral plan. This is a positive step, but considering the ongoing cost of energy overall, more work must be done.

As such, the Senator will continue to push for further reductions from energy companies, as well as for regulatory reforms at DPU to help mitigate surprise spikes in the future.

The full letter can be found, below:

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