Utility cutoff freeze is extended

The State Corporation Commission has extended a statewide freeze on utility service shutoffs until Sept. 16.

The moratorium was previously set to extend to Aug. 31.

The extension gives the General Assembly, currently in special session, additional time to enact any legislation it may choose addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on utility customers, the commission stated in a Monday press release.

The moratorium was first imposed March 16.

“While the general moratorium will expire, utility customers who entered into extended payment plans as a result of a prior commission order will continue to be protected from service shutoffs if they remain current or enter into individualized new repayment plans with the utility,” the release stated. In its June 12 order, the SCC directed all utilities to offer extended payment plans of up to 12 months to customers struggling to pay bills due to the economic impacts of COVID.

No late payment fees may be charged to customers in such extended payment plans. The commission’s latest order continues that protection beyond the expiration of the moratorium.

The expiration of the shutoff freeze “does not mean that customers are without options for continuing utility service, and we strongly urge utilities to make every effort to accommodate customers who are making good-faith efforts to pay their bills,” the commission stated.

The SCC also emphasized that prior to its moratorium, utilities had existing tariffs approved by the SCC that contained protections, especially for medically vulnerable customers, to avoid shutoffs, and that those tariff protections will remain in place beyond the moratorium.

The SCC reiterated two points it has stated in previous orders:

• That an indefinite moratorium on service disconnections is not sustainable. “If such bills are never paid, the costs of these unpaid bills are ultimately borne by paying customers as operational costs of the utility. These costs do not disappear; they are shifted to other customers, who themselves may be struggling to make ends meet in the economic catastrophe caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

• That “utility regulation alone cannot adequately address what is a much broader socioeconomic catastrophe.”