Time September 21/September 28, 2020A
fTer COViD-19 hiT, BranDy WilCOxsOn, a
single mother in Atlanta, saw her weekly
hours cut from 40 to around 13. Now, because
she has to be home to supervise her two kids’
virtual learning, she can’t pick up more shifts at her job as
a security guard, so she struggles to cover rent and food—
and she also owes about $1,000 in electric bills. When
she contacted her power company about entering into a
payment plan, she says she was told she would
need to pay $192 a month just to catch up, on top
of whatever she will owe going forward. That’s
money Wilcoxson, 42, does not have. “It would
be robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she says.
The stakes for people in Wilcoxson’s situation
are about to get even higher. In September, after
a pandemic-prompted pause, power companies
serving tens of millions of Americans will resume
service shutoffs to customers who are behind on
their bills. In some states, moratoriums are end-
ing; in others, utility companies’ pledges to keep
customers connected are winding down. “We’re
facing a tidal wave of terminations,” says Charlie
Harak, senior attorney for energy and utilities is-
sues at the National Consumer Law Center.
There’s no national account of how many cus-
tomers could lose power, but there are certainly
millions who risk disconnection at a time when
people need their utilities the most. Stuck at
home, families are depending on their utilities to
power the Internet and lights for virtual school
and to keep on the air-conditioning in areas fac-
ing sweltering heat. Carbon Switch, an energy ef-
ficiency startup, estimates that 34.5 million peo-
ple will lose shutoff protections in 14 states in the
next month. On the basis of data from Massachu-
setts, Harak estimates that as many as 10% of U.S.
households are so far behind on bills they are at
risk of termination when moratoriums end.
Duke Energy, which serves 7.8 million cus-
tomers across seven states in the Southeast and
Midwest, tells TIME that as of Aug. 30, roughly
300,000 of its customers were 60 days or more behind
on their gas or electric bills. In early August, Florida
Power & Light Company said 258,000 customers were
behind on payments; Tampa Electric Company said
92,000 of its customers were late. A public-interest
group said in June that 800,000 Pennsylvanians were
at risk of service termination. Data filed with Minne-
sota’s Public Utilities Commission shows that more than
300,000 households in Minnesota were past due by the
end of July.
The threat of shutoffs is another sign of how measures
to help Americans during the pandemic have fallen short.
There were still 29 million Americans receiving unem-
ployment benefits the week ending Aug. 15, according to
Commerce Department data. State unemployment offices,
slammed with a surge in applications and running on out-
dated systems, are still trying to catch up. One in 3 families
struggles to pay utility bills in normal times; more are fall-
ing behind because of the sudden loss of income.
By Oct. 1, only 14 states will still prohibit power shut-
offs, according to the Carbon Switch report. Utility com-
panies defend their decisions to resume shutoffs, saying
customers who know their power won’t be cut stop try-
ing to make payments. They’ve already lost billions of
dollars from non residential customers as a result of busi-
ness closures; the American Public Power As-
sociation, which represents 2,000 public power
utilities serving 49 million people, estimates that
member revenues are down $5 billion in 2020.
“At some point, you do have to return to normal
billing operations for business reasons,” says Neil
Nissan, a spokesman for Duke Energy. (In Au-
gust, Duke reported $1.1 billion in income for the
three months ending June 30.)With revenues doWn, many utility compa-
nies may try to raise rates on everyone. Citing
“the threat posed by the corona virus pandemic”
and volatility in capital markets, Appalachian
Power in Virginia has asked regulators to let it
raise rates 6.5%. (The request has not yet been
approved; the Virginia attorney general’s office
said in a filing it would be “unconscionable” to
approve.) Indiana’s utility regulatory agency ap-
proved Duke Energy’s request for a rate increase
in June. Rate hikes would be especially hard on
low-income families, who devote three times as
much of their income to energy costs as higher-
income households.
While some states are continuing to prevent
shutoffs—regulators in Wisconsin, Maryland and
Massachusetts extended their moratoriums, for
example—consumer advocates have urged Con-
gress to impose a national moratorium on utility
shutoffs. They’ve cited health concerns if people
affected by cutoffs move in with friends or family
members, increasing the risk of transmitting the
coronavirus.
But the mounting shutoffs have already forced
Americans struggling to pay bills to consider something
that seemed unthinkable a year ago: life without basic
services like electricity or water. Tanya Barie, 36, who
lives near Philadelphia, experienced this when her water
was shut off in August after she fell behind on payments
following a pandemic-related job loss. She couldn’t mix
formula for her baby or give her children baths. “You
don’t realize how much you need it,” she says, “until you
don’t have it.” TheBrief Opener
300,
Number of utility
customers in
Massachusetts who
were 60 or more days
behind on their gas
or electric bills as of
Aug. $117.
Average monthly
residential electric bill
in the U.S. in 201822%
Share of low-income
Americans who have
had to forgo basic
household needs like
food and medicine
to pay an energy bill
during the pandemicNATION
After job losses, power
cuts loom for millions
By Alana Semuels