Commercial eligibility guide · 2026 program year
My town runs its own light plant. What are my heat pump options?
By Advanced Ductless · Published · Last verified
Short answer
No municipal light plant in Massachusetts is a Mass Save® Sponsor — but that does not settle whether your building qualifies, because eligibility follows the fuel the heat pump displaces, not the town. A commercial building in a municipal-electric town that heats with natural gas from a Mass Save® Sponsor has a route through that gas Sponsor. A building in the same town heating with oil, propane or electric resistance does not, because there is no Sponsor electric account behind it.
Where the Mass Save® route is closed, the light plant’s own commercial program may be open instead. Of the 17 municipal power towns in this service area, 4 currently publish commercial heat pump terms whose source names the 2026 program year. The rest are confirmed by phone, not guessed at.
Advanced Ductless, Inc, a ductless heat pump installer at 1101 N Main St, Suite A, Randolph, MA 02368, works both routes and files the paperwork either way. Call (617) 802-4848, or 617-309-8804 in Vietnamese.
Is my municipal light plant part of Mass Save®?
No. Mass Save® is a collaborative of six Sponsors — Berkshire Gas, Cape Light Compact, Eversource, Liberty, National Grid and Unitil — and no municipal light plant is one of them. Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant puts it on its own website: it is not affiliated with Mass Save®.
That is where most pages on this subject stop, and stopping there is what makes them wrong. “Not a Sponsor” describes who bills your electricity. It does not describe what your building can claim.
What does the Mass Save® form actually say?
The 2026 Commercial Heat Pump Rebate Application for existing buildings heads its electric block with a carve-out that no Massachusetts contractor appears to have published:
“ELECTRIC SPONSOR INFORMATION (REQUIRED FOR ALL DISPLACEMENT TYPES UNLESS IN MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC TERRITORY)”
Mass Save® 2026 Commercial Heat Pump Rebate Application, existing buildings, footer stamped Mass Save® 2026 | June 2026. Read 1 September 2026.
The program’s public business page states the two halves of the rule directly: equipment displacing natural gas is eligible for commercial or industrial metered customers receiving natural gas service from a Sponsor, including those in municipal electric territories; equipment displacing oil, propane or electric resistance is eligible only for customers receiving electric service from a Sponsor.
Read those two sentences together and the municipal-town answer falls out of them. It is a fuel question wearing a geography costume.
Which route does my building have?
| What the building heats with today | In a municipal-electric town | What has to happen first |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas from a Mass Save® Sponsor | Mass Save® commercial route is open, through the gas Sponsor | Pre-approval before installation. Required on every commercial heat pump project since 1 July 2026 |
| Oil or propane | Mass Save® route is closed — no Sponsor electric account. The light plant’s own program may apply | Confirm the light plant’s current-year terms and its own approval process |
| Electric resistance | Same as oil and propane: Mass Save® closed, light plant program if one exists | Same as above |
| Municipal gas as well as municipal electric | Neither fuel is billed by a Sponsor, so the light plant is the only route | Confirm directly with the light plant |
One consequence worth stating plainly, because it inverts what most people assume: a gas-heated business in a municipal-electric town is often in a better position than an oil-heated business on the same street.
What does my town publish?
One row per municipal power town in our service area. The Mass Save® column always states the fuel condition, because there is no town in this table where the answer is a plain yes or a plain no.
| Town | Light plant | Mass Save® route | The light plant’s own commercial program |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont | Belmont Municipal Light Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Braintree | Braintree Electric Light Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Concord | Concord Municipal Light Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Hingham | Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Hull | Hull Municipal Light Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
| Lakeville | Middleborough Gas and Electric Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through Eversource | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Mansfield | Mansfield Municipal Electric Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through Eversource | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
| Marblehead | Marblehead Municipal Light Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | air source heat pumps at $300 per ton under 5.4 tons, $150 per ton from 5.4 to 20 tons and $100 per ton above 20 tons; VRF multi-split at $400 per ton under 3 tons and $325 per ton from 3 to 5.4 tons; capped at the lower of 50% of installed cost or $5,000 per business per calendar year across all NextZero business programs, paid by check. Pre-approval before purchase and installation is required and the equipment must be ENERGY STAR certified |
| Middleborough | Middleborough Gas and Electric Department | Verification in progress — we confirm before you commit | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| North Attleboro | North Attleborough Electric Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through Liberty | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
| Norwood | Norwood Municipal Light Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | No commercial amount we can date to the 2026 program year. We confirm the current terms directly with the light plant. |
| Peabody | Peabody Municipal Light Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | air source heat pumps at $300 per ton under 5.4 tons, $150 per ton from 5.4 to 20 tons and $100 per ton above 20 tons; VRF multi-split at $400 per ton under 3 tons and $325 per ton from 3 to 5.4 tons; capped at the lower of 50% of installed cost or $4,000 per business per calendar year and paid as a credit on an upcoming PMLP electric bill. Pre-approval before purchase and installation is required |
| Raynham | Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through Eversource | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
| Reading | Reading Municipal Light Department | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | $1,000 per ton up to $6,000 for commercial and industrial buildings up to 5,000 square feet with systems up to 10 tons, one rebate per customer every 10 years; larger buildings and systems route to RMLD’s Commercial Custom rebate at up to 20% of installed cost, capped at $100,000. A utility authorization number and written pre-approval are required before installation, and customers who take Mass Save® heat pump rebates are not eligible for the RMLD rebate on the same equipment |
| Taunton | Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through Eversource | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
| Wakefield | Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department | Verification in progress — we confirm before you commit | air source heat pumps at $500 per ton under 5.4 tons, $350 per ton from 5.4 to 20 tons and $300 per ton above 20 tons; VRF multi-split at $600 per ton under 3 tons and $525 per ton from 3 to 5.4 tons; capped at the lower of 50% of installed cost or $5,000 per business per calendar year, paid by check. Pre-approval before purchase and installation is required |
| Wellesley | Wellesley Municipal Light Plant | Gas-heated buildings only, through National Grid | The light plant’s current-year materials publish no commercial heat pump amount. We confirm the terms directly before you commit. |
Where a row says verification is in progress, that is literal rather than a hedge. Two towns have public records that contradict each other on who supplies which fuel, and a wrong answer there sends a business owner to the wrong utility to claim public money.
Can I take the light plant rebate and Mass Save®?
Not where the light plant forbids it, and at least one does in writing. Reading Municipal Light Department states that customers who take Mass Save® heat pump rebates are not eligible for the RMLD rebate on the same equipment. Treat the two as alternatives and work out which is worth more for your building before either application goes in — that comparison is part of the assessment, not an afterthought.
Both routes require approval before the equipment is installed. Mass Save® has required pre-approval on every commercial heat pump project since 1 July 2026; Reading separately requires a utility authorization number and written pre-approval. Install first and the money is gone on either route.
Summary
No municipal light plant is a Mass Save® Sponsor. In a municipal-electric town, a commercial building heating with natural gas from a Sponsor still has a Mass Save® route through that gas Sponsor; a building heating with oil, propane or electric resistance does not, and its option is the light plant’s own program where one exists. 4 of the 17 towns here publish 2026 commercial terms we can quote; for the others the honest answer is that we confirm before anything is committed. Approval comes before installation on both routes.
Questions we get asked
No. Mass Save® is a collaborative of six Sponsors — Berkshire Gas, Cape Light Compact, Eversource, Liberty, National Grid and Unitil. No municipal light plant is among them, and Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant states on its own site that it is not affiliated with Mass Save®. That does not mean a business in a municipal town has nothing: what matters is which fuel the heat pump displaces and which company bills that fuel.
Very likely yes, and this is the answer almost every competing page gets wrong. Mass Save® states that equipment displacing natural gas is eligible for commercial or industrial metered customers receiving natural gas service from a Sponsor of Mass Save®, including those in municipal electric territories. So a gas-heated commercial building in a municipal-electric town has a route through its gas Sponsor even though its electricity does not come from one. Eligibility still depends on the building meeting the program requirements, and pre-approval is required before installation.
Not the Mass Save® commercial heat pump rebate. Equipment displacing oil, propane or electric resistance is eligible only for commercial or industrial customers receiving electric service from a Sponsor of Mass Save®, and in a municipal-electric town there is no Sponsor electric account. What may be available instead is the light plant’s own commercial heat pump program, where it runs one. Four of the seventeen towns currently publish 2026 commercial terms; the rest we confirm by phone before anything is committed.
Not where the light plant forbids it, and at least one does in writing: Reading Municipal Light Department states that customers who take Mass Save® heat pump rebates are not eligible for the RMLD rebate on the same equipment. Treat the two as alternatives rather than a stack unless the light plant says otherwise in its own current-year documentation.
Because the source does not name the 2026 program year. Several municipal light plants publish undated pages, and some of the documents still circulating are two program years old. An amount is shown here only where the light plant’s own current-year source states it. Where it does not, the honest answer is that we call and confirm before you commit to anything, which is what the row says.
Yes, on both routes. Mass Save® has required pre-approval on every commercial heat pump project since 1 July 2026, and the Rebate Commitment Letter it produces has to be in hand before installation. Reading Municipal Light Department separately requires a utility authorization number and written pre-approval before installation. Installing first and applying afterwards forfeits the money on either route. Advanced Ductless files this paperwork as part of the job.
Sources
- Mass Save® 2026 Commercial Heat Pump Rebate Application, existing buildings — footer stamped Mass Save® 2026 | June 2026. Read 1 September 2026.
- Mass Save® — business air source heat pumps — the displaced-fuel eligibility rule in the program’s own words. Read 9 August 2026.
- Mass Save® — about us — the six Sponsors. Read 1 September 2026.
- Marblehead Municipal Light Department — commercial heat pump rebate — source dated 2026-02-01, 2026 program year.
- Peabody Municipal Light Plant — commercial heat pump rebate — source dated 2026-02-01, 2026 program year.
- Reading Municipal Light Department — commercial heat pump rebate — source dated 2026-04-01, 2026 program year.
- Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department — commercial heat pump rebate — source dated 2026-05-01, 2026 program year.
Amounts are as published on the dates shown. Municipal programs are annual, are often capped by available funds, and change without notice. Every figure is confirmed with the light plant before you commit to anything. Nothing on this page is a residential rate.
On a Mass Save® Sponsor for both fuels? The commercial rates, the pre-approval rule and the paperwork are on our Mass Save® rebates page for small business.
Not sure which route your building has?
Tell us what the building heats with today and which company bills it. We will tell you which route is open, what it pays, and what has to happen before anything is installed. Call (617) 802-4848.