Pulling the plug: RG&E shutoff warnings rise

More than 206,000 final service shutoff notices were sent to RG&E residential customers in the first four months of this year, the highest number in at least a decade.

That doesn't mean that Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. shut off electric or gas service to that many people; the true number likely is considerably less. But a pair of non-profit groups that circulated the figures say it does mean that energy costs in New York are crazy high and that a growing number of people, especially those with lower incomes, are finding it impossible to keep up.

RG&E notes, accurately, that it acquires electricity and gas as inexpensively as it can and resells energy to consumers with no markup. If the cost of energy is too high, the company says, the fault lies elsewhere.

Earlier this week, the AARP and the Public Utility Law Project released the number of disconnect notices sent by RG&E and the state's other regulated utilities. They compiled the data as part of a lobbying effort to persuade the state Legislature to fund an independent consumer advocate that can intervene in utility rate cases and other procedural matters, perhaps resulting in lower energy costs. They say advocacy offices in other states have proven well worth the money it takes to fund them.

At last word, the State Senate had not acted on the measure the groups were pushing for.

But the tally of shutoff threats caught my eye because I've had several complaints from friends and readers of what they thought were unusually quick shut-off notices sent to them by RG&E just a few days after a bill was due but, because of an oversight, left unpaid. This happened to me as well a year or two ago.

In one case, a friend using the budget plan fell slightly behind without knowing it and had his electricity cut off with no final warning. He tells me he has a friend to whom the exact same thing happened. And here's a tale from a local writer, Joanne Brokaw, who blogged about her close encounter with the shutoff man.

I've been wondering if RG&E had changed its practices or if the state Public Service Commission had changed its policies regarding shut-offs. Could that explain the uptick?

The company says no. "We continue to abide by HEPFA guidelines and have not made any changes to the timing of sending our termination notices." HEPFA stands for the state's Home Energy Fair Practices Act, which, among other things, governs how utilities disconnect residential customers for non-payment.

And according to the PSC, the guidelines haven't changed in nearly a decade.

The reason, then, why people seem to get final warnings a few days after a bill is due remains a mystery.

The data made public earlier this week by the two non-profits, which was taken from utility filings with the PSC, show the number of final termination notices sent RG&E customers who were 60 days or more in arrears on their payments. The groups collected numbers for the first four months of the year.

• 2005 87,654
• 2006 90,319
• 2007 143,946
• 2008 166,557
• 2009 183,529
• 2010 188,181
• 2011 192,072
• 2012 183,452
• 2013 190,087
• 2014 206,375

The figures clearly tell a tale. They roughly doubled when the economy soured in 2007 and 2008, then stayed higher even as some indicators showed the economy improving. The number went up nearly 10 percent this year, the non-profits say, because the harsh winter led to astronomical electricity and gas prices.

"Many customers are on payment plans, paying off prior arrears from bills they could not afford," said Gerald Norlander, the Public Utility Law Project's executive director. "When new bills jump due to the volatile prices ... customers fall behind again and miss the due date for their current bill, plus the installment payment on old arrears. The utility is then allowed to demand all past due amounts, demand late fees, and shut service off as a collection measure. This creates impossible situations, hardships and often hazardous conditions when less safe forms of energy are used. More can and should be done by utilities to make bills more stable and affordable to low-income customers and to minimize service interruption for bill collection purposes."

RG&E didn't question the figures or one of Norlander's underlying points. "We believe there is a correlation between high commodity supply prices and the number of termination notices sent," spokesman Dan Hucko said. "However, it's important to note that supply prices are set by the market."

While the company doesn't profit from higher energy prices, it does make a profit on delivery of that energy. But Hucko said RG&E last raised its delivery rates in September 2012.