The Massachusetts DPU has claimed Bay Staters can expect to save on utility costs after it “reduced” the budget for the Mass Save energy program by $500 million, but some groups say state officials and companies aren’t conveying the truth.

Utility costs have soared since the Department of Public Utilities approved increases upwards of 30% last fall as the rates and a bitterly cold winter set in.

Following the backlash to the expensive rates, DPU commissioners have set a $4.5 billion budget for Mass Save, which officials describe as a “nation-leading energy efficiency program,” over the next three-year plan, through 2027.

The agency has championed the budget as a “$500 million reduction” but has made it appear the trimming is from the current three-year plan, of $4 billion, instead of the initially proposed $5 billion spending plan.

The DPU highlighted in a release Friday that Mass Save has helped “customers save 18 million megawatt-hours of annual electricity consumption, leading to lower energy bills on average,” over the past 15 years.

“The DPU chose to reduce the overall budget to minimize the direct impact to customers’ energy bills,” the agency said in the release. “As the DPU stated in its order, ‘[t]he responsibility of weighing the bill impacts of these Three‑Year Plans rests squarely with the Department and we take our responsibility as the stewards of ratepayer funds seriously.’”

Commissioners also said that they expect the 2025-2027 Mass Save plan to “lower total residential program budgets by 25% for gas and 15% for electric,” with the decreases varying by utility provider.

Sky-high delivery charges this winter have been tied to increased funding for state environmental initiatives including Mass Save, a program that supports Massachusetts’ “statutorily-required greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.”

Officials update Mass Save every three years to align the program with new technologies and clean energy goals.

“Even with the $500 million reduction, ratepayers will still be paying more toward Mass Save than they were last year,” Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Diego Craney told the Herald on Saturday. “Gov. Healey and State House lawmakers are forcing ratepayers to pay more to fund their green climate mandates. It’s that mandate that is creating all these expensive bills and bad decisions by regulators.”

DPU commissioners are also requiring program administrator Cape Light Compact to work with lawmakers to “find alternative sources of funding for decarbonization measures so that Mass Save programs do not solely rely on funding provided by ratepayers.”

The $4.5 billion budget calls for the installation of 120,000 electric heat humps and the weatherization of about 184,000 homes, while phasing out fossil-fueled appliances.

This all comes as the DPU ordered the state’s six main gas distributors to reduce residential bills for March and April by at least 5% to “provide relief to their customers for the remaining heating season.”

Eversource, National Grid, Liberty Utilities, Berkshire Gas and Unitial submitted proposals ranging from a 7.4 to 16% reduction in gas costs that the DPU approved on Friday. Commissioners said due to the reduced Mass Save budget, the companies “may not need to defer costs for residential customers” who will not be charged interest on the deferrals.

Gov. Maura Healey said the $500 million reduction “will mean real savings for people while ensuring the vital money savings from energy efficiency can move forward.”

“We also know this is not enough,” the governor said in a statement Friday evening. “We need urgent action to continue to bring down costs and prevent these price spikes from happening again. That’s why I will be launching an energy affordability agenda — including through executive actions and legislation — in the days and weeks ahead.”

Roughly 27,000 people have shared their anger about the soaring utility costs in the Facebook advocacy group “Citizens Against Eversource.” The group, created by resident Elijah DeSousa, protested outside DPU offices in Boston on Friday morning.

After learning about the DPU’s “criminal” actions from the day, DeSousa posted a video in the Facebook group, saying he believes companies and state officials need to be “investigated.” He said the $500 million increase in the Mass Save budget from the current spending plan could lead to a 12% increase in costs.

“They’re selling it to us as if we’re stupid as if we don’t know what they’re doing,” DeSousa said. “I get it folks. We all want to embrace this good news, and they’re very lascivious and malicious in their wording.”

Penni Conner, Eversource executive vice president of customer experience and energy strategy, said customers would begin seeing lower rates that went into effect Saturday via the company’s 10% reduction to bills through the local distribution adjustment charge.

“Energy efficiency is just one of many important pieces on that broader path to decarbonization,” Conner said in a Friday statement, “and collective buy-in is essential for the various solutions that will be needed to achieve our shared goals, including addressing the region’s energy supply challenges.”

The Beyond Gas coalition, a group of advocates urging homeowners to move away from fossil fuels, slammed the DPU’s actions, equating the “paring back of energy efficiency programs” to “cutting your nose to spite your face.”

“To deliver energy affordability for Massachusetts residents,” the coalition said in a statement, “Governor Healey and the State Legislature must take tangible steps to address the root cause of what’s driving up energy costs: excessive spending by gas and electric utilities for costly infrastructure projects and decisions designed to line corporate pockets, not lower bills.”