Few customers behind on electric bills take advantage of special protections

A state moratorium on utility shut-offs officially ended last week, but more than 186,000 Long Island customers experiencing financial hardship because of COVID-19 can still get a state-mandated grace period to protect them from shut-offs through Dec. 21, state and utility officials said Wednesday.

But few customers so far are taking advantage.

Of the Long Island electric customers who were behind on their electric bills at the end of May, only around 184 customers had called PSEG to ask for the grace period, according to a Newsday analysis. LI customers owed a total of nearly $150 million.

The state of emergency formally ended June 24, freeing utilities to use the threat of shut-offs to force customers behind on their bills to pay up starting this week. But the state law passed in May afforded customers who request it an additional grace period to stave off a shut-off if they are financially impacted by COVID-19.

No proof is needed to show an impact — customers simply can call their utility and self-certify by "attesting" to the hardship and receiving protection through nearly the end of the year. PSEG customers can do so by calling 800-490-0025.

While there’s no indication that utilities are rushing to shut off power to force customers to pay overdue bills, particularly during a heat wave, the end of the moratorium gives utilities the legal right to do so — and only a call to the utility to attest to your financial hardship can prevent it.

The grace period provided for in the law applies to electric, gas, water, cable and internet service/telecom companies, and ends on Dec. 21, said Public Service Commission spokesman James Denn. Customers can attest all the way through Dec. 20, he noted, but those who do will get only a single day of protection.

PSEG said it will soon begin including inserts into customers' monthly bills telling them of the 180-day grace period, which applies to residential and certain small-business customers. The program also allows customers to set up a new or restructured deferred payment plan without any down payment, late fees or penalties, PSEG spokeswoman Ashley Chauvin said. In addition to calling PSEG, customers can get more information on payment programs at PSEGLINY.com/Assistance.

"Our customer-service representatives continue to proactively reach out to customers to provide guidance on state and federal programs to help them manage their bills and set up payment agreements to pay what they can now, and not get too far behind," said Chauvin.

Utilities across the region have seen their arrears skyrocket during the pandemic, in part due to the loss of a powerful tool — service terminations — normally used to get customers to pay up.

Statewide gas and electric arrears topped $1.33 billion as of April, a $52.1 million jump from the $1.28 billion reported in March, according to state figures. Nearly 1,130,000 customers were in arrears in April, up 4,000 since March, according to the state figures.

In addition to the 180-day grace period, protections in the state law include access to deferred payment plans even if customers had been unable to get one in the past, and minimum payments under those deferred plans, according to the state.

Jump in arrears

LIPA and PSEG reported total residential arrears of $149.2 million as of May 31, a jump from the $144.7 million in residential arrears at the end of April, and a significant increase from the $99.6 million in April of 2020, at the height of the pandemic.

Of the total 208,061 PSEG customers who were behind paying their bill in April, 186,709 were residential; the rest were chiefly business customers.

PSEG said 28,437 customers at the end of May were on deferred payment plans — down from pandemic highs of more than 43,000. On average, residential customers owed $799 in back electric bills by the end of May.

One utility watchdog group, which this week urged customers to call their utilities for the extra protections, said reasons for the relatively few sign-ups for extra protection range from lack of awareness of the program to challenges some customers may face navigating their utilities' systems.

"The self-certification process and protections provided a shelter so that customers could not be talked or scared/forced into making payments larger or faster than the law requires on utility bills," said Richard Berkley, executive director of the Albany-based Public Utility Law Project.

He said that while he doesn’t believe "the utilities are dissuading customers from self-certifying," he also doesn’t think "they are alerting, educating anyone to that option." He also said the state could do a better job of educating customers to protections in the law.

PULP is urging customers who have a problem getting their utility to sign them up for the grace period to call the state to complain.

"If the utility refuses to honor a request to self-certify, call the New York Department of Public Service’s complaint line at 1-800-342-3377 and request they order the utility to honor the grace period and issue an affordable deferred payment agreement," PULP said in a message this week.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.