Amid mounting debt, Columbus Light and Water will not shut off service to residential customers for at least 30 days after Gov. Tate Reeves ends Mississippi’s “Safer At Home” order, which is currently set to expire May 11.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission has suspended utilities shutoffs through May 14 because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but General Manager Todd Gale said at Thursday’s board meeting that CLW — which buys its power from the Tennessee Valley Authority — isn’t subject to that restriction. Regardless, CLW won’t be shutting off power to any customers until June 10 at the earliest.
Gale told The Dispatch after Thursday’s meeting that 18 percent of CLW customers would be currently subject to disconnection under typical circumstances.
The balance on the utility’s past due accounts on April 24 was roughly $300,000. On April 24, 2019, it was a little more than $67,000. Gale told The Dispatch that utilities around the country likely face similar conditions during the pandemic, and it could pose a problem.
“If we let it go another 30 days, we’re probably going to end up somewhere around half a million dollars,” Gale said during the meeting. “If we don’t collect on that or don’t collect a lot of it, we might be forced to look into a rate increase, but that’s too early to tell.”
If a rate increase became necessary, it would likely be implemented in October, Gale said.
During Thursday’s meeting, Gale laid out the utility’s plan for making arrangements with the 2,000 or so customers who are behind on their payments.
CLW will contact defaulting customers on the day their bills come due — the utility bills different customers every day as part of a 30-day billing cycle — and will give them 30 days to come in and make arrangements in which the total amount of their missed payments will be divided over their bills for the following months.
Customers who owe less than $25 will be asked to pay right away, but the more they owe, the longer they have to pay it back. For example, those who owe from $25.01 to $200 will have their debt split over the next four months’ bills, and there are seven-month, 10-month and 11-month options as well. Those who owe more than $800 have 12 months to pay it back.
The board voted at the end of Thursday’s meeting to authorize implementing the plan once Reeves’ order is lifted. Gale told The Dispatch that the plan would “more than likely” be pushed back in accordance with the length of the order if Reeves extends it.
“We’re gonna kind of take the more conservative road,” Gale said.
Concerns about repayment
At the meeting, Gale voiced his uncertainty that CLW will receive direct payment from low-income customers who are behind on their bills.
Prairie Opportunity Inc. offers the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides regular financial help paying electric and other utilities bills to those who can’t afford it. That’s one of the avenues Gale and CLW expect to see utilized as they hope to recoup their mounting debts.
“I don’t see them giving it directly to us,” Gale said. “It’s either going to have to funnel through our customers and the LIHEAP program through Prairie, or it’s gonna funnel through the city.”
Gale said that low-income customers who routinely need assistance paying their bills have become accustomed to it; it’s those who are now struggling for the first time who will need the most help.
“You’ve got some people that don’t know the process that we’re gonna have to educate,” he told the board. “They have never been up against this before.”
Not many customers have contacted the utility about overdue payments yet, but Gale said he expects that to change.
“Since some customers know that they’re not going to be cut off, they’re not calling,” he said during the meeting. “Once we start this process, we’ll get a lot of calls.”
Gale said he wants the utility to instruct customers in need of arrangements to come to the CLW building for one-on-one meetings for the clarity that phone conversations can’t always offer.
Timeline differs for commercial customers
The plan Gale initially proposed at Thursday’s meeting would have given commercial customers 30 days to make arrangements as well, but board member Jabari Edwards voiced concerns about that timeline.
“Just because the state has opened, let’s say, restaurants, it doesn’t mean that customers are going to come back,” Edwards told Gale. “You and I both know people (won’t) just flock back.”
Edwards suggested allowing 60 days for commercial customers to make arrangements, and the board agreed to the new term.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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