Energy switch blocked for some

About 2,000 Eversource users hit snag in seeking lower-cost generator

HARTFORD — When Connecticut consumers learned that their electric supply rates would increase by 100% on Jan. 1, they were stunned.

Many of them started thinking about switching to third-party generators, which is permitted under electric deregulation that was passed by the state legislature more than two decades ago.

But about 2,000 Eversource customers were surprised again recently upon learning they had been blocked when trying to switch to a lower-cost generator, such as Constellation Energy CT and North American Power.

Peter W. Higgins, an 81-year-old East Hartford resident who retired after 38 years with Pratt & Whitney, was stunned that he could not switch suppliers at a time when the Eversource “standard offer’’ will be doubling from 12 cents to 24 cents per kilowatt hour on New Year’s Day.

“They’ve placed a hardship blocker on a big number of people who have never been on hardship in their life, including me,’’ Higgins told the Courant in an interview. “Because of this boondoggle with everybody being put on hardship, it may cause a delay enough for me so I won’t get the favorable rate. They put me on this list that says I needed help when I don’t need help and I didn’t ask for help.’’

Like others, Higgins said he was never late on a payment and does not consider himself to be a hardship case. He says he has been paying bills for the past 50 years to Eversource and its predecessors.

Higgins is part of a batch of about 55,000 new “hardship’’ cases on the Eversource rolls since October, officials said. Some of those were referred due to their financial status, but tens of thousands came from marketing data that Eversource used in an effort to automatically enroll customers without their knowledge, officials said.

Like Higgins, thousands of customers may be unaware they are in the “hardship’’ program until they try to switch suppliers.

Eversource used information from the U.S. Census and public records on property taxes and other sources to generate the new names on the list, officials said.

Eversource says it was simply

making a well-intended effort to proactively help cash-strapped residents who need financial assistance, but the customers say the program went awry.

“We didn’t intend this to have any negative impact on our customers,’’ said Jessica “Jess’’ Cain, the utility’s vice president of customer operations.

Eversource previously had 140,000 hardship customers before October, but that number jumped to 195,000 when the new batch was included.

“This is a trial, and we have some useful lessons learned,’’ Cain said. “We don’t want to make customers angry. They’re a vocal one half of 1% of the low-income customers. ... It’s just a one-time trial.’’

Cain conceded that some customers are highly upset by the situation.

“We’ve had a few very fired-up calls,’’ she said, referring to what the company calls “energy-engaged customers.’’

While some customers are complaining, Cain says that others do not realize that they could be eligible for help under the hardship program. That includes individuals earning up to $40,000, and a family of four earning up to $77,000 per year and a family of six under $101,000 per year.

At least some who have been placed on the hardship list do not meet that criteria.

Customers who want to be removed from the list need to fill out a form that is available on the Eversource website. Cain says that can be done on the same day on Eversource’s side, but some customers remain skeptical.

Eversource has filed a motion with the state’s utility regulator — the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority — to “modify its approach for marketing data trial’’ that identified “likely financial hardship electric accounts whose financial hardship has not been verified through traditional household income verification processes.’’

If approved, the company would maintain its winter shutoff protections, and would “mitigate growing complaints and frustration from trial customers who don’t have a verified financial hardship and want to choose a supplier,’’ according to the filing by Eversource counsel Kathleen M. O’Hare.

Attorney General William Tong is following the situation closely and will be reviewing the policies in the coming weeks to see if any changes need to be made.

“We pay far too much for our energy in Connecticut, and consumers should be given every opportunity to both protect themselves from shutoff and save money,’’ Tong said. “If anyone has been entered incorrectly into the hardship program without their knowledge and has trouble exiting the program after requesting assistance, I want to know. These policies were made to protect hardship customers from predatory practices and overpriced contracts. What we are seeing right now with our energy rates is unprecedented, and we need to take a hard look at our policies to ensure there are no unintended consequences in this moment.”