Third party electric supply companies are allowed to solicit utility customers in our service territories. These solicitations refer to the “supply” rate of your bill, which is only one portion of the overall rate utility customers pay. State regulations require that utilities get fresh bids from energy providers every six months, and this supply rate, which reflects the current market cost to actually make the electricity, changes every six months. We obtain new bids from energy providers bi-annually.

Third party suppliers are allowed to get bids on electricity outside of this cycle. Think of them as like a broker; the rate they offer would replace this specific portion of the overall rate for whatever length of time a customer agrees to. Unitil would still be your electric provider, however, and you would still call us if the power goes out so we can send a crew.

As a company, we support the idea that our customers should explore all options available and that they are free to make a decision on an energy contract that is right for them.

If you or a family member uses electrically-operated life support systems, we encourage you to notify Unitil in advance of any outages by submitting our Physician’s Certification Form found here via email, fax or mail. Once we receive this form, your account will be noted and we will include a notification to you in the event that we anticipate adverse weather or a scheduled outage which may result in a power outage. Click here for more information.

Generally, your budget billing monthly payment amount will change once or twice within the year. These adjustments are made to your payment amount to prevent you from having a large amount due or credit balance at the end of the program year. Prior to our changing your payment amount, we will include a note on your bill to make you aware of the new amount, which will appear on your next bill. The decision to change your payment amount is based on several factors. While we try to limit the number of adjustments, your payment amount may change when:

• The price of electricity and/or natural gas changes
• Warmer or colder temperatures mean you will use more or less energy to heat or cool your home
• Your monthly usage has changed compared to prior usage history that was used for calculating your payment amount
• You have purchased or replaced appliances

The Budget Billing Program is a free service available to all residential customers. Your account must be current with no overdue balance.

You may enroll anytime provided your bill is current. Our Questions & Comments form makes the process convenient. Simply select "Budget Request" from the picklist before submitting and one of our Customer Service representatives will review your account for eligibility.

You will need to provide us with a handful of information to start service at a new location:

• The address of the new location
• The property owner's information (if applicable)
• The former tenant's name (if applicable)
• Your name
• Your social security number
• Your telephone number at the new location
• Your mobile or business phone number
• The date you are requesting service
• Spouse's name (if applicable)

Trimming cycles allow us to control re-growth over a consistent percentage of a service territory and ensure that all areas in a service territory are maintained over a similar period of time.

Tree crews are often an integral part of outage restoration during and following a storm. We work with our tree contractors to reserve resources ahead of major storms, and communicate with crews during and after the restoration process to address hazard trees and other compromises to our system.

Tree debris will not be removed during or after storm conditions; this is the responsibility of the owner of the tree. Any debris that is a result of our standard trim cycles is removed or put through a chipper. Pieces not fitting into the chipper are cut into manageable lengths and left for the owner or their designee. Additionally, we do not remove debris after our tree or line crews remove branches or trees during unscheduled outages and other emergencies.

A key reason we don’t take your wood is that it belongs to you! Cut wood has value and can be sold. If your wood is of a high enough quality, you may find someone locally willing to pay to take that wood off your hands.