Worcester, Mass.—October 17, 2000—bulbs.com, a privately held e-commerce light bulb supplier, and Massachusetts Electric Company today announced that the companies have partnered to offer Massachusetts Electric Company customers Energy Star® light bulbs at a significant discount. The offer, available to all residential Massachusetts Electric Company customers in Massachusetts, is for the purchase of six Energy Star®, long life energy saving light bulbs from Philips for $9.95, reflecting an instant rebate of $30. The retail value of these light bulbs is $39.95. By using the six energy efficient bulbs, customers could save an additional $160 in electricity costs over the expected four-year life of the bulbs.

"This is a great deal for customers. They can save $30.00 on the spot, plus enjoy monthly savings on their electric bill once the bulbs are installed, replacing traditional incandescent lighting," said Lawrence J. Reilly, president and chief executive officer of Massachusetts Electric Company. "Additionally, our partnership with bulbs.com allows our customers to participate in this rebate program using the convenience of the Internet."

"We are very pleased that a leading company like Massachusetts Electric Company has selected bulbs.com as its e-commerce partner," said Steven Rothschild, chief executive officer of bulbs.com. "By offering this rebate offer online, Massachusetts Electric Company customers won’t have to drive to a store, saving even more energy."

Massachusetts Electric Company will alert its customers to the special offer in their monthly electric bills throughout autumn. The rebate offer is open to customers served by National Grid USA’s distribution companies: Massachusetts Electric, Narragansett Electric and Nantucket Electric. Interested customers can take advantage of the offer by visiting www.bulbs.com/ngusa or by calling toll-free, 1-866-642-8527. Customers are asked to have their account numbers ready.


About Massachusetts Electric Company
Massachusetts Electric Company is an electricity distribution subsidiary of National Grid USA that serves approximately 1.2 million customers in 170 Massachusetts cities and towns. Massachusetts Electric Company can be found on the Web at http://www.masselectric.com.

About bulbs.com
bulbs.com, headquartered in Worcester, Mass. is the only online light bulb supplier to offer an easy, complete purchasing process with its proprietary eSpec™ searchable database and BulbTrack™ smart reordering technology. The company is located at 40 Jackson Street Suite 2000, Worcester, Mass, 01608, and can be reached by telephone at 508-363-2800 or on the Web at www.bulbs.com.