Eversource Energy is asking state regulators to approve a long-term natural gas supply contract that company officials say would cut costs for Massachusetts customers and reduce reliance on high-cost, imported liquefied natural gas delivered through the Everett Marine Terminal.
The company, which manages two natural gas utilities in Massachusetts — NSTAR Gas and Eversource Gas Company of Massachusetts — filed petitions with the Department of Public Utilities on Tuesday.
The filings came the same day that Enbridge, the Canadian-based energy infrastructure firm that owns the Algonquin Gas Transmission Pipeline, announced it had reached a final investment decision to move ahead with a $300 million expansion of its pipeline system. That expansion is designed to deliver about 75 million cubic feet per day of additional natural gas to the U.S. Northeast once it is completed in 2029.
Eversource spokesman William Hinkle said the agreement would secure lower-cost and less carbon intensive domestic supply for customers in southeastern Massachusetts.
“As part of our continued focus on affordability and reliability for customers, we’ve entered into a precedent agreement with Algonquin over a 10-year period to purchase additional natural gas supply from a proposed capacity expansion project,” he said in a statement.
Eversource estimates the supply shift would save Massachusetts customers about $400 million over the life of the agreement.
“The commonwealth has charged us with evaluating alternatives to [Everett Marine Terminal], and this agreement will provide direct benefits to customers in the near-term as the clean energy transition continues to unfold and until new, large-scale renewable resources come online,” Hinkle said.
The company said the plan fits with Massachusetts’s long-term climate policies.
“As we continue working to advance the Commonwealth’s decarbonization and electrification goals, we will unquestionably need more sources of energy supply to meet customers’ energy needs, and it’s our responsibility to evaluate any and all solutions that will improve reliability and affordability for our customers, including additional natural gas supply,” Hinkle said.
Exported liquid natural gas, like that coming into Everett Marine Terminal, has become controversial in recent years as research has suggested that exported gas emits significant greenhouse gas emissions. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities gave approval last year for the LNG terminal in Everett to keep its doors open through 2030.
However, the state’s Office of Energy Transformation also has a mandate to transition away from reliance on the LNG Facility.
NSTAR and Eversource Gas of Massachusetts (who filed near-identical petitions to the DPU) said the contract would allow the companies to step back from dependence on Everett Marine Terminal beyond 2030, when their current contracts are set to expire.
“If approved by the Department, the Proposed Agreement would eliminate the Company’s need to extend its current contract for Everett Marine Terminal (‘EMT’) supplies to serve its customers on Algonquin’s G-System beyond the current expiration date of the EMT contract in 2030,” both utilities wrote in their filings.
They continued, “Because the Proposed Agreement replaces an existing gas resource contract, the Department’s approval will not lead to any additional [greenhouse gas] emissions and will not impede the energy transition in Massachusetts.”
Eversource Gas of Mass. projected direct customer savings and a modest impact on household heating bills.
“Approval of the Proposed Agreement would reduce winter gas supply costs for EGMA customers by approximately 17 percent, representing a reduction of the total bill for a typical residential natural gas heating customer of approximately five percent in 2030,” the filing said. “This is a $340 million reduction in gas supply costs for EGMA customers over ten years.”
Eversource Gas of Mass. is purchasing more of the pipeline supply than NSTAR, Hinkle said.
NSTAR’s savings from their contract would be more modest. Their petition estimates the agreement would reduce winter gas supply costs for their customers by 3%, an average 1% bill reduction by 2030 for a typical natural gas heating consumer. There could be a total $60 million reduction in gas supply costs for NSTAR Gas customers over ten years, they say.
Both companies asked regulators to rule on the proposal by February 2026, ahead of a March 1 deadline written into the agreement.
If regulators sign off, the plan would mark one of the first publicized supply agreements tied to the Algonquin expansion in Massachusetts, though Enbridge has secured several similar deals elsewhere in the region.
The DPU did not return a request for comment.