NC regulators extend utility shutoff ban to September, allow 12-month repayments

North Carolina’s Utilities Commission threw a lifeline Wednesday to thousands of customers who face overdue electric, gas, water and sewer bills during the coronavirus pandemic, ordering utilities under its jurisdiction not to resume disconnections before Sept. 1.

Gov. Roy Cooper had separately issued executive orders temporarily banning shutoffs by all utilities, but those expire just before midnight Wednesday.

The commission’s action effectively extends the moratorium for one month for the utilities it regulates. It also directs those utilities to allow customers at least 12 months to repay overdue bills, doubling the six-month grace period that the commission and Cooper had previously required.

The Utilities Commission regulates investor-owned electric companies such as Charlotte-based Duke Energy and natural gas distributors including Piedmont Natural Gas. It does not regulate municipally-owned electric utilities and electric membership corporations, or the municipally- and county-owned water systems that serve many small towns and rural areas.

Charlotte-based Duke Energy, which is owed much of the overdue bills, has said it would give customers one 30-day billing cycle after the moratorium ends before resuming procedures that can lead to disconnections.

In its order, the commission said the pandemic presents an unprecedented state of emergency for regulators, public utilities and their customers. It’s far from clear when they will emerge from that emergency, it added.

The commission “is concerned that the accumulation of significant unpaid utility charges over a continuing and most-likely extended period of time into the future will put both customers and utilities in financial positions where it may be difficult or in some cases even impossible for customers to repay and utilities to recoup the revenues uncollected during the State of Emergency,” the order says.

Since April 1, the commission has reported, more than 1.3 million residential customers in North Carolina have been spared shutoffs of their utility service because of the moratorium. Utilities have reported to the commission that, as of June 30, they were owed $257 million in past-due accounts.

Cooper’s expiring order had directed utilities statewide to stop shutoffs, waive late fees and give customers at least six months after the end of the moratoriums to settle their overdue accounts. Even so, consumer advocates had predicted a wave of disconnections would drown state residents who are already struggling to keep their jobs and homes during the pandemic.

The governor’s order was meant to be consistent with the commission’s separate March 19 order, which was more limited in scope and open-ended. The commission order kept its moratorium in place until Cooper declared the state of emergency over — he hasn’t —or the commission rescinded its action.

This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 6:18 PM.