The Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) recently extended protections for electric and natural gas customers struggling to pay bills due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

State regulators extended an order, previously set to expire April 30, preventing investor-owned energy utilities from disconnecting customers for nonpayment through July 31. The order also requires the utilities to continue to waive late fees through late January 2022.

The UTC reported that as of December 2020, almost 277,000 residential electric and natural gas customers (of investor-owned utilities) have balances past due totaling over $79 million. AWC has heard from cities that these numbers are consistent with the nonpayment also experienced by customer-owned utilities (COUs).

Currently, all utilities, including COUs, are prohibited from disconnecting, refusing to reconnect, and charging late fees to customers under Governor Inslee’s Emergency Proclamation 20-23.13. The proclamation has been extended several times since the start of the pandemic and is currently set to expire April 30, 2021.

AWC anticipates that all utilities, including city-owned utilities, will see an extension on the existing moratorium.