The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
⏩ Business: Power use rises as people stay home.
One added expense in the age of the coronavirus that consumers may overlook is what working from home and having children home from school does to the household’s monthly electric bill.
Ed Crowder, a spokesman for The United Illuminating Co., said while the expectation is that residential usage of electricity is on the rise because of more people working from home, company officials don't have enough data at this point confirm that projection.
Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Eversource Energy, said Connecticut’s largest electric utility saw a 3 percent increase in residential power usage for the week of March 21-27 compared to the week before. Over the same time period, Gross said Eversource officials saw a 3 percent decrease in power usage by commercial and industrial customers.
“While the pandemic continues to evolve, we’re reviewing and evaluating potential impacts on our electric system and demand while focusing on ensuring reliability for our customers,”
he said.
The increase in electricity usage that Eversource officials witnessed seems to be an outlier compared to the New England region as a whole, at least initially.
Mike Knowland, manager of forecasting and scheduling for regional
power grid operator ISO-New England , said residents and businesses have adjusted their behavior in the past month.
“We have seen a decline in system demand of approximately 3 percent to 5 percent, compared to what we would
expect under weather conditions in the region,” Knowland said. “These percentages may change over time.”
Knowland said ISO-NE forecasters are seeing load patterns as people work from home that resemble those of snow days, when schools are closed and many are home during the day.
“These patterns include a slower than normal ramp of usage in the morning, and increased energy use in the afternoon,” he said.
Matthew Kakley, a spokesman for the Holyoke, Mass.-based grid operator, said ISO-NE only has data for the region as a whole and does have a state-by-state power usage breakdown or one based on different types of electricity users.
“The shutdown of businesses and schools is lowering demand in the region to a greater degree than any increases in residential electricity use,” Kakley said.
Some of biggest drivers of any electric bill are generation charges — what the customers pays for electricity to be produced — as well as transmission and distribution charges, which represent the cost of bringing electricity to your home. Transmission and distribution charges fluctuate based on
how much electricity you use during a billing period and come in the form of a charge per kilowatt hour.
Crowder said UI officials “are encouraging customers to take steps to better understand and manage their changing usage patterns.”
“Our web site offers customers a number of robust tools that can be used to track energy usage,” he said. “(Those tools include) Energy Analyzer and bill alerts, which allow customers to get notifications when their usage or total bill cost reaches a specified threshold.”
UI customers can access the online tools by logging into My Account portion of the company’s web site, Crowder said, and then click on Energy Analyzer. Once in Energy Analyzer. customers go to dashboard for that section of the company’s site and click on Bill Alerts.
Crowder urged UI customers who think they may have trouble paying an upcoming electric bill to contact company officials to discuss payment arrangements and assistance programs
“Another thing I would urge customers is to pay what they can, even if they can’t pay the full amount,” he said.
Crowder declined to speculate what might happen if a UI residential customer was unable to make any payments for several
consecutive months.
“We understand the impact this event is having on the economy and our customers, and have suspended shut-offs for nonpayment, late fees and security deposits,” he said. “We continue to work with our regulators and community partners to find additional ways to ease the impact of this event on our customers. Regarding the question about unpaid bills months from now, what I can say is that right now we’re focused on continuing to provide safe and reliable service.”
On for Eversource, Gross offered a similar response.
“Our primary focus remains taking all necessary precautions to maintain safe and reliable service for our customers while also safeguarding the health and well-being of our employees and the public during this unprecedented time,” Gross said. “We’re routinely in contact with our regulators, especially when it comes to issues that affect our customers and will work with them on any customer payment issues at a more appropriate time.”
West Monroe, a Chicago-based management and technology consulting firm, is projecting the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a significant increase in utilities taking on bad debt from consumers.
“An increase in bad debt could become a significant financial burden for utilities,” company officials said in a recently released whitepaper report. “Utilities should look at investing in innovative approaches to engage customers to help them manage their usage and bills. Utilities should also look for ways to reduce the burden and complexity for customers to enroll in payment assistance programs.”
Congress is currently considering a number of proposals to protect cash-strapped customers, according to Brian Reil, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.based Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents the nation’s investor-owned electric utilities.
As part of testimony the organization provided on one such proposal, the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act, EEI officials oppose provision contained in the act that would prohibit debt collection during the national COVID-19 emergency and for four months afterward.
“Delays in the repayment of electric bills can hurt those customers who still are able to pay their bills because rates will increase,” the written testimony reads in part. “While this hurts those customers in the short-term, it will impact all customers when
this crisis is over. Under the proposed legislation, debt is not forgiven, and customers still will need to pay it.”
Edison Electric Institute officials argue that essential service providers like utilities need more flexibility, not less, in terms of working with customers to structure a repayment plan.
Another negative consequence of the act, officials with the trade group contend, is its potential to hurt the electric utilities financially.
“EEI’s member companies rely on a variety of debt and equity markets to raise the low-cost capital they need to invest in the energy grid,” the testimony says in part. “To supplement payments from customers for their electricity use, EEI’s members utilize the commercial paper markets, revolving loans, and corporate bonds to finance their operations. The inability of electric companies to work with their customers to develop reasonable payment plans — combined with the disconnection moratoriums in effect — will increase the financial pressure on companies, making it more difficult and more expensive to maintain our workforce and to make the investments needed to keep the energy grid reliable and secure today and into the future.”