PUC Examines COVID-19 Customer Impacts

COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the United States, resulting in increased hospitalizations and virus-related deaths. Here in Oregon (as of July 10), there have been over 11,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and a steady stream of new infections are reported daily. The state has lost over 240,000 jobs since February, and the unemployment rate remains alarmingly high at 14 percent.

Ongoing research from public health experts and economists indicates that vulnerable populations – predominantly communities of color, the elderly and disabled, and low-income families – are the people who suffer the first and worst. These groups continue to struggle with accessing medical services, remaining safely housed, keeping or finding employment, educating and caring for their children, and covering household expenses like utility bills.

When combined, utility bills (heating/cooling, water/sewer, phone/internet) can be crippling, and understanding this dynamic is key to addressing the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19. Yet only some governors and state utility or public service commissions have taken steps to assist utility customers with bill payment, service disconnections, and/or the creation of new repayment options for accrued and past-due balances.

To their credit, most Oregon utilities – public and private; state-regulated and not; energy, water, and telecommunications alike – have voluntarily halted service disconnections. However, neither the Governor by executive order, or the Public Utility Commission (PUC) though administrative action, has enforced a moratorium on service disconnections or outlined protections for vulnerable utility customers. Other states have taken temporary actions, many of which expired at the end of June or will later this summer. Only a handful have ensured customer protections through the end of 2020.

While the state’s Joint Legislative Emergency Board did allocate $15 million for energy bill payment assistance, as well as an additional $3.5 million for phone and internet service bill payment support, CUB and other advocates have growing concerns that in the absence of clear state guidance, utilities may move far too soon toward a continuation of business as usual.

Validating these concerns, the PUC held an initial pandemic informational meeting in early June. CUB identified elements of a COVID-19 Utility Consumer Protection Plan: Define economic recovery thresholds before lifting a service disconnection moratorium, as well as the conditions for later re-imposing a moratorium; enforce clear and equitable requirements for customer notifications; address customer arrears through no interest and multi-year payment plans, as well as potential debt forgiveness; and allow differential rates for low-income and affected customers. 

The PUC recently launched a series of COVID-19 “Customer Impact” workshops, which will culminate with a September report. The Commission will then set a course for next steps to address COVID-19-induced customer impacts. CUB’s goal is to develop a comprehensive Utility Consumer Protection Plan for *regulated utilities and their customers. Such a plan could provide a model for providers of unregulated utility services: public power, municipal water and sewer, and broadband internet access service.

(*The PUC only regulates private energy and water utilities, as well as traditional telecommunications utilities. Private water companies serve comparably fewer customers in Oregon than municipal water and sewer utilities. The PUC’s telecommunications regulatory scope does not include price and service requirements for broadband.)

The PUC held Workshop #1 on June 30 and invited all regulated utilities. Next was an energy utility data-specific meeting on July 8. Workshop #2 is scheduled for July 16 and will also focus on energy and water. A telecommunications utility-specific workshop is planned for July 30. Three additional workshops are scheduled in August.

The emphasis of the July 8 meeting was a review of customer arrearage data from January 2019 to May 2020 across all Oregon natural gas and electric utilities. The data illustrates the historic nature of the pandemic in terms of its extreme relationship to customers’ inability to cover their energy utility bills. Comparing May 2019 to May 2020, the total balance across Oregon’s regulated energy utilities for customers 90-or-more days in arrears is up 133 percent. For those same two months, the total number of customers 90-or-more days in arrears has increased by 110 percent. 

These numbers demonstrate the scope of the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19. The data also demonstrates why CUB, during a period of historic fear and uncertainty for Oregonians, is advocating for a comprehensive and equitable COVID-19 Utility Consumer Protection Plan. 

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