Gas and electricity shut-offs have soared since passage of a 2004 law that made it easier for utilities to stop service to nonpaying customers, but the law has not universally delivered the improved bottom lines that the companies sought.
A report issued Monday by the state Public Utility Commission said considerably more households faced a potentially dangerous situation heading into last winter than in the years before the law passed.
Termination rates are at record highs, with statistics in the report showing that electricity and gas shut-offs rose by more than 43 percent from 2004-07. Locally, Allegheny Power, Duquesne Light, Penn Power, Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania and Equitable Gas reported terminations rose by 70 percent to almost 220 percent, with Penn Power reporting the highest figure. Dominion Peoples Gas reported terminations were down 12.4 percent.
The number of disconnected customers who were reconnected to service rose substantially, more than 77 percent from 2004 to 2007.
At the same time, many more households are taking part in assistance programs that are supported by customers who pay their bills. Those programs have grown by more than 50 percent to $330 million, or about $45 a year per residential gas or electric customer.
The law was enacted with the support of gas and electric utilities, and has been criticized by consumer advocates because of what they said was the potential to harm low-income utility customers. Consumer advocates criticized the law because it passed in a lame-duck legislative session without public hearings.
The law required the utility commission to issue the report, the second of five, on its effectiveness.
The utility commission made no recommendations on how to change the law, but did encourage the Legislature to put more state taxpayer dollars into programs that help low-income households pay utility bills.
"Financial support is necessary because the declining economy is creating a 'new poor' as diminishing purchasing power for consumers combines with higher utility costs," the report said.
It warned that thousands more customers will find their utility bills unaffordable in the next two years upon the expiration of decade-old, state-imposed electricity rate caps that have shielded more than 80 percent of the state's customers from being billed for the true price of the power they use.
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