Residents trying to catch up on high home heating bills may find working with utilities and state regulators an equally chilling experience.
Natural gas and electric ratepayers who got behind on their bills are now receiving disconnection notices. They are no longer protected by the state’s “winter shut-off moratorium” that ended April 1 despite continuing cold temperatures.
Pleas to National Grid to set-up payment plans may bring surprises.
In one example, an elderly Haverhill caller who was subjected to the utility’s telephone auto attendant was denied a payment plan in a recorded message.
“You are currently not eligible to enroll in a payment plan. You can check online at nationalgridus.com for special outside programs that may be able to assist with your bill,” the robot said.
Such customers are referred to relief agencies or advised to undertake weatherization or other programs that won’t forestall shutoffs. The caller does not meet the age, income, health or other requirements for any outside relief. A second call to the utility, however, where the resident pressed for a representative, found a payment plan was, in fact, available, albeit on harsh terms.
Although the false auto attendant message provided, what the state’s Consumer Protection Law might interpret as, an “unfair or deceptive practice,” the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities won’t help.
“Their IVR (Interactive Voice Response system) and their decision to move over to that process, that’s something that we wouldn’t be able to enforce,” said someone answering the consumer complaint line at the state agency that used to be a last resort for those in dire need.
With nowhere else to turn, the customer accepted the human National Grid representative’s requirement to pay a steep 50% down payment and pay the remaining balance within six months.
Last month, State House News Service reported, “For electric customers, bills have increased from roughly $130-$160 per month in 2016-17 to peak at around $250 per month in 2023 or 2025, depending on the utility, according to filings with DPU. Gas customers have seen bills climb from about $140 in the winter of 2016-2017 to $320 or more this winter, the filings said.”
In the article, National Grid blamed legislators. “Public policy charges have increased by the largest percentage over the past 10 years and, for electric customers, now nearly equal the distribution charge.”
As Commonwealth Beacon published in a 2021 opinion piece headlined, “DPU is too cozy with utilities it regulates,” that “the DPU has often been seen as a rubber stamp for the interest of the utilities.”
The author blamed “’regulatory capture’ – a term describing when industries have gained effective control over the government agencies that are supposed to regulate them.”