WESTBOROUGH, Mass. – Beginning Monday, Massachusetts Electric, Niagara Mohawk, Narragansett Electric, Granite State Electric and Nantucket Electric will be known as National Grid, the electric company announced in a press release.
“Our customers are starting to see the transition to the National Grid name,” said Michael Jesanis, president and chief executive officer of National Grid USA. “Coming together with National Grid as our common identity reinforces the bond among our U.S. energy delivery businesses.”
Here’s a summary of what the new name means for customers:
Emergencies and outages: There are no changes to how customers or emergency responders can report an outage or event. Massachusetts customers should still call 1-800-465-1212 to report a power outage or emergency. Rhode Island customers should still call 1-800-909-1212 to report a power outage or emergency. Company customer service contact center representatives and automated voice response systems now identify themselves as being from National Grid.
Customer service and Web sites: There are no changes to how customers can contact National Grid for general customer service. New England customers should still call 1-800-322-3223. Customer service activities continue to be available online, including starting or stopping service, reviewing an account, enrolling in the Budget Plan, locating energy suppliers and finding efficiency tips. Go to www.nationalgrid.com and under the “In the US” banner select the link for your state.
Billing: Customers should now make their checks out to National Grid, although checks made out to previous company names will be honored. No action is required if a customer is enrolled in Direct Pay, our automated payment plan. All existing payment locations will continue to accept payment on National Grid accounts. News of the name change has been appearing in customer mailings since August. Bills with the new logo began in the October billing cycle. The new logo, with a notation that the power company bill is inside, will begin to appear on envelopes in November.
Vehicles and uniforms: National Grid is putting the new logo on all service vehicles that have more than two years of remaining life. All employees will be provided new National Grid identification cards. Field service employees with regular customer contact will have a National Grid cap. Other branded uniform apparel will be changed to the new logo during normal turnover.
National Grid USA, through the transmission and distribution of electricity and natural gas, serves close to 4 million customers across 29,000 square miles of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island.
National Grid plc (LSE:NG; NYSE:NGG) is an international energy delivery business with principal activities in the regulated electricity and natural gas industries. The company owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales and operates the system across Great Britain. It also owns and operates the high-pressure gas transmission system in Britain and, through its gas distribution business, delivers gas to more than 10 million homes and businesses in Britain. In addition, it has a number of businesses operating in related areas such as wireless infrastructure for broadcast and telecommunications, metering and interconnectors.
