LI electric customers rank 4th statewide in past-due utility bills
For PSEG Long Island, 111,101 residential customers had a combined $150 million in past-due bills as of March, the NYS comptroller said. Credit: James Carbone
Long Island ranked fourth among statewide utilities in the percentage of customers in arrears, with 111,101 PSEG residential ratepayers owing an average $1,354 in past-due bills as of March, according to state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The comptroller’s office, while noting $250 million in state arrears-forgiveness programs, said it supported “further legislative and regulatory efforts to reduce the number of people in arrears.”
Long Island electric customers made up about 9% of the 1.2 million customers statewide in arrears, the report noted, and about 8% of the approximately $1.8 billion owed statewide as of March. That's a statewide increase of nearly $1 billion from March 2020, DiNapoli reported, with one in eight residential customers in arrears.
The 111,101 late-paying PSEG Long Island residential customers had a combined $150 million in late bills, the comptroller said. National Grid’s Long Island gas company had 47,074 customers more than 60 days late at the time, representing 4% of the statewide arrears. The average National Grid Long Island customer owed $1,153 in past-due bills as of March.
Con Edison had by far the most customers late in paying their bills: 392,587, or 32% of the residential statewide total of arrears. The Con Ed arrears totaled $848.7 million in March, the comptroller reported.
Behind Con Edison, the utilities with the next-largest arrears and share of the state arrears were National Grid Upstate, with 223,717 residential customers late as of March — totaling $362.3 million — about 18% of all statewide residential customer arrears; and National Grid-New York City-region, with 189,825 customers owing $187.1 million in arrears as of March, about 15% of the statewide total.
The state has announced a program to fund $250 million in arrears-forgiveness programs for low- to moderate-income customers. For PSEG, about $9.047 million will come from the state to fund the program, 6.5% of the total state funds available for forgiveness. The funds will forgive the past-due electric bills of about 14,000 PSEG customers, Newsday has reported.
Con Ed will get $164.4 million in state funds, while the utility’s customers will fund another $7 million through a surcharge. PSEG is expected to make up the balance of the $28 million needed for forgiveness programs with a surcharge on customer bills. National Grid's Long Island gas company will get $1.2 million in state arrears-forgiveness funds.
PSEG this month announced it will send letters to 46,000 customers telling them they may face electric shut-offs because of overdue bills, Newsday reported. PSEG says it’s working to get customers on payment plans to avoid shut-offs, taking monthly payments of as little as $10. Commercial customers faced shut-offs as of last year.
DiNapoli’s report, noting that prolonged arrears may ultimately result in shut-offs, said the State Legislature and regulators should “consider additional prudent steps to reduce the number of utility customers that cannot pay their utility bills.”
Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.
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