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Get a Free QuoteAMLP powers all of Ashburnham at about $0.235 per kWh all-in— roughly half what nearby Unitil and National Grid customers pay. That cheap power changes the math on heat pumps, solar, and EVs. Here is everything a homeowner needs: the real rate, the NextZero rebates, and AMLP's own solar rules.
Verified July 2026 against amlp.org (Schedule A, eff May 1, 2026), AMLP's Residential Distributed Generation Policy, and nextzero.org/ashburnham.
Ashburnham Municipal Light Plant (AMLP) is the town-owned electric utility serving every home in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Its 2026 Schedule A residential rate works out to about $0.235 per kWh all-in — a $12.50 monthly customer charge, plus $0.1891 per kWh for energy and $0.0250 per kWh for the power-cost adjustment. That is roughly half of what neighboring Unitil and National Grid customers pay, which is exactly why heat pumps and EVs cost far less to run in Ashburnham than in investor-owned-utility territory.
AMLP's residential Schedule A has three parts. Add them up at a typical 600 kWh month and the all-in rate lands near $0.235 per kWh. There is no separate “supply” and “delivery” split the way an investor-owned utility bills it — AMLP is your supplier and your wires company.
| Schedule A component | 2026 amount | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Customer charge | $12.50 per month | Fixed monthly charge, regardless of usage |
| Energy charge | $0.1891 per kWh | Includes a NYPA hydropower credit of about $0.007 per kWh |
| Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (PPCA) | $0.0250 per kWh | Passes through AMLP’s wholesale power cost; adjusts over time |
Neighboring investor-owned rates shown live from our per-utility rate database. Ashburnham itself is served only by AMLP; the comparison is what a home a few miles away in Unitil or National Grid territory would pay.
Ashburnham has no natural-gas main — homes here burn oil or propane, or heat with electricity. Because AMLP power is so cheap, a heat pump often wins on running cost. Put in today's fuel prices and see.
Delivered cost of heat, in dollars per million BTU. Set today's fuel prices and your expected cold-climate seasonal COP.
Heat pump on AMLP powercheapest
seasonal COP 2.7
Heating oil
boiler/furnace at 84% efficiency
Propane
boiler/furnace at 90% efficiency
At these inputs, a heat pump on AMLP power delivers heat about 17% cheaper than oil and 34% cheaper than propane— before you count the free cooling a heat pump adds in summer.
Estimates only. Oil and propane prices swing week to week — check the current Massachusetts average at mass.gov before you decide. Your actual COP depends on the equipment, sizing, and how cold the winter runs.
The cost of heat comes down to two things: the price of the fuel and how efficiently the equipment turns it into warmth. Oil and propane boilers top out around 84–90% efficient — you never get more heat out than the fuel's energy content. A cold-climate heat pump is different: it moves heat rather than burning it, delivering roughly 2.5–3 units of heat per unit of electricity (a seasonal COP of 2.5–3.0) even through a Massachusetts winter.
Run those numbers on AMLP's $0.235 per kWh and a heat pump lands near $25 per million BTUof delivered heat — under heating oil (about $30–$31 at recent Massachusetts prices) and well under propane (about $39). The same heat pump on an investor-owned rate of $0.45 per kWh would cost more than $50 per million BTU — more than oil. AMLP's low rate is the whole advantage: it is what turns “heat pumps are greener” into “heat pumps are also cheaper to run.”
Heat pump on AMLP power (COP ~2.7)
Heating oil at recent MA prices
Propane at recent MA prices
Illustrative, using an 84% oil / 90% propane boiler and a seasonal heat-pump COP of 2.7. Fuel prices move week to week — check the current Massachusetts average at mass.gov and use the calculator above with live numbers. We never guarantee a specific dollar saving; it depends on your home, your equipment, and the winter.
AMLP is a small utility, so it runs its efficiency and electrification rebates through NextZero, the shared program it participates in through MMWEC. The menu is honest and modest — per-ton heat pump rebates and flat appliance rebates, not the four-figure whole-home stacks some larger municipals offer. Here is the 2026 slate for Ashburnham.
Ducted or ductless mini-split. SEER2 ≥ 15.2, HSPF2 ≥ 8.1, COP ≥ 1.75 at 5°F.
EER2 ≥ 19.2, COP ≥ 3.5. Same 3-ton-per-year rebate limit applies.
ENERGY STAR certified electric HPWH.
Efficient furnace or boiler; post-install inspection required.
Tightens the envelope so a heat pump can be sized smaller.
4-burner induction; $100 when replacing an existing electric range.
The rules that matter. Heat pump rebates are capped at 3 tons per year. Equipment must be installed by a Massachusetts-licensed contractor, purchased between January 1 and December 31, 2026, and the application submitted online or postmarked by January 31, 2027. Most appliance rebates are limited to one per type per customer every three years.
Free home energy audit.NextZero offers Ashburnham customers a no-cost home energy assessment and can help schedule weatherization. It is the cheapest first step — a tighter envelope lets a heat pump be sized smaller and run cheaper. Confirm the current rebate amounts at nextzero.org/ashburnham when you apply.
Mass Save is funded by an energy-efficiency surcharge on the bills of the investor-owned utilities — Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil. Ashburnham is served by AMLP, a municipal light plant, so its customers don't pay that surcharge and are not eligible for Mass Save electric rebates. AMLP's NextZero program is the substitute. And because there is no natural-gas distribution utility in Ashburnham, there is no gas-side Mass Save channel either — a detail that trips up homeowners who read a statewide guide and assume it applies to them.
NextZero rebates through AMLP: per-ton heat pump rebates, a heat pump water heater rebate, weatherization and insulation, ENERGY STAR appliances, and a free home energy audit. Plus AMLP's low electric rate, which does more for running costs than any single rebate.
Mass Save heat pump rebates, the 0% Mass Save HEAT Loan, and ConnectedSolutions battery payments are all IOU-funded programs — AMLP customers can't enroll. Ignore any “Mass Save” offer you see advertised statewide; in Ashburnham it isn't yours to claim.
This is where AMLP differs most from the big utilities, and where homeowners get surprised. AMLP does not offer 1-for-1 retail net metering. Its Residential Distributed Generation Policy bills you at the full retail rate for power you pull from the grid, but credits exported solar only at the ISO-NE day-ahead wholesale price— a few cents per kWh, far below what you pay. The design lesson is simple: size solar to power your home in real time, not to bank exports.
Per residential customer-generator, sized to no more than 80% of your average load.
AMLP caps total customer solar at ~4% of its 2018 peak load. Confirm remaining headroom before you design.
Exported kWh are credited at the ISO-NE day-ahead market price, not the retail rate you pay for power.
Covers application review, site visit, and witness test. A $115 check-meter fee may also apply.
A few more RDGP details.There's a $2.00 per kW monthly standby charge on the system, AMLP retains the solar renewable-energy certificates (SRECs), and a lockable, visible disconnect switch is required near your meter. Export credits roll over up to 12 months, then expire. Because export pays so little, pairing solar with a heat pump, an EV, or a battery — loads that soak up your own daytime production — is what makes solar pencil out in AMLP territory. Always confirm the town-wide 300 kW cap has room before you commit.
The residential solar credit (Section 25D) and the residential heat-pump and efficiency credit (Section 25C) both ended December 31, 2025, and the Section 30C EV-charger credit expired June 30, 2026. There are no federal residential clean-energy tax credits in 2026. For Ashburnham, the live incentives are AMLP's low electric rate and the NextZero rebates on this page — not a federal form.
We design heat pumps and solar around AMLP's actual rate and rules, and file the NextZero rebates for you.
Ashburnham Municipal Light Plant (AMLP) is the town-owned, not-for-profit electric utility that serves every home and business in Ashburnham, Massachusetts — a town of about 6,300 people in the north-central part of the state. Because it is a municipal light plant, AMLP is governed by a locally elected Board of Light Commissioners rather than the state Department of Public Utilities, and it sets its own rates to recover the cost of serving customers. There is no competitive supplier choice: if you live in Ashburnham, AMLP is your electric company.
How solar works across every MA municipal light plant.
The numbers on a solar payback in Ashburnham.
Another MA municipal’s heat-pump program, for comparison.
The neighboring investor-owned utility’s program.
The statewide IOU program AMLP customers can’t use.
What a heat pump actually costs to install in MA.
We design around AMLP's real rate and its distributed-generation rules, size systems for self-consumption, and file your NextZero rebates — so Ashburnham homeowners get the most out of some of the cheapest power in Massachusetts.
