After six-month freeze, Maine utilities can soon once again disconnect customers
Maine utility companies will soon once again be able to pull the plug on customers who don’t pay their bills.
The state Public Utilities Commission ruled Tuesday to end an emergency moratorium on utility disconnections, and allowed the companies Nov. 1 to resume normal procedures for terminating service on Nov. 1. Like many states, Maine has tried to ease the pandemic’s economic blows by suspending utility disconnections since March.
Some customers will continue to get a reprieve, however. Winter regulations forbid electricity and natural gas utilities from disconnecting residential customers between Nov. 1 and April 15 without approval of the PUC. Telephone and water utility companies can disconnect service during that period as long as they follow the state’s rules.
All disconnections are subject to a 30-day notice requirement, and utilities must offer reasonable payment arrangements. The PUC’s order also mandates that companies waive new late-payment charges as long as a customer enters a payment arrangement and complies with it.
PUC Chairman Philip L. Bartlett II said in a news release Tuesday that the commission weighed the interests of Maine’s utilities and their customers before ordering the freeze to be lifted.
“The emergency moratorium was implemented to assist customers in the early days of the pandemic, when schools and businesses were being shuttered and people were ordered to stay at home,” he said. “Continuing the blanket moratorium indefinitely would prevent some utility customers from accessing federal CARES Act funds to help them with their bills and could drive up costs for all utility customers over the long term.”
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