Marlborough to shop for cheaper electricity

Utility regulators approved a plan to let the City of Marlborough buy electricity for residents and businesses through a buyers’ cooperative that may get better rates than the utility National Grid USA offers.

The plan is similar to the Cape Light Compact, which buys electricity for 200,000 Cape Cod residents unless they opt out.

The Marlborough plan will pool 14,000 customers who get ‘‘basic service’’ as soon as May. Customers will continue to pay National Grid for delivering electricity but pay Marlborough to contract with a competitive supplier for power, as long as it can get a lower rate than National Grid’s.

State Department of Telecommunications and Energy officials hope other local cooperatives will emerge.
(By Peter J. Howe, Globe staff)