Gov. Roy Cooper included no provision in his statewide Tropical Storm Helene executive order to bar utilities from disconnecting residents who are behind on their bills — unlike his mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission also has enacted no such protections, unlike its orders during the pandemic .
On Oct. 7, due to Helene, Georgia Power announced it was suspending disconnections and waiving late fees until at least Dec. 15 for residential and business customers. In North Carolina, Duke Energy has made no such public announcement.
The lack of action by Cooper and utility regulators in North Carolina concerns a utility watchdog group.
“While many residents are in recovery mode and trying to put their lives back together, a constant threat haunts some: losing utilities again,” Sue Sturgis, a North Carolina-based researcher with the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute , said in an email to The Charlotte Observer.
At least 100,000 North Carolinians rely on electricity for their medical and assistive equipment and devices, she said.
Any customer can be cut off, watchdog group says
During COVID, Cooper prohibited providers of electricity, gas, water and wastewater services from disconnecting customers and collecting fees, penalties and or interest for late payments.
Cooper’s COVID mandate lasted 60 days and gave residential customers at least six months to pay outstanding bills, Sturgis said. His mandate followed a North Carolina Utilities Commission order that suspended disconnections for nonpayment.
“Why aren’t North Carolina’s utility regulators and its largest utility doing the same for people affected by disaster?” Sturgis asked.
Cooper’s press office didn’t respond to four email and phone messages from the Observer over the past week.
Duke Energy and other utilities can still disconnect “any customer with a balance, despite the state of emergency that’s still in effect,” Sturgis said.
Duke is waiving disconnections, official says
Sam Watson, general counsel for the state utility commission, said several utilities, including Duke Energy, are voluntarily waiving disconnection and late fees, among other measures, for customers in Helene-affected areas.
Customers in need of relief from their bills should first contact their utility, Watson said. If the person they talk with is unable to resolve the issue, ask for their supervisor, he said.
If necessary, Watson said, contact the state’s Public Staff Consumer Services Division at 919-733-9277 or 866-380-9816 or via email at consumer.services@psncuc.gov.
By Tuesday, Duke Energy had restored power to all but 6,500 customers in the Carolinas and to all but 2,221 by Wednesday afternoon, according to the company outage map, down from more than 2.5 million.
Power was restored to all customers in the hard-hit mountain county of Buncombe, which includes Asheville, the outage map showed.
Still, after the deadly wildfires on the island of Maui in 2023, Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission ordered disconnections suspended, Sturgis said.
“Hawaii’s largest utility, Hawaii Electric, even publicly announced its moratorium on disconnections,” she said. “Why aren’t North Carolina’s utility regulators and its largest utility doing the same for people affected by disaster?”
“The North Carolina Utilities Commission and the Public Staff know about Duke Energy’s voluntary suspension of disconnections and late fees,’ Sturgis said. “But how are the people struggling to rebuild their lives in disaster-stricken Western North Carolina supposed to know about the policy?”
“There’s been no public announcement by the company or by any state agency,” she said. “Duke Energy has repeatedly said it’s committed to customer outreach, but it’s failing to offer any information up front about the disconnection suspension.”
“Compare this with Georgia Power’s announcement via press release that it suspended disconnections and late fees through at least Dec. 15 for people affected by Helene,” she said.
“Always here to assist customers”
Regarding customers who can’t pay their outstanding bills due to Helene, “we are taking a flexible, personal approach to working with those that are facing financial hardships,” Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said in a statement for this story.
“Those in the heavily impacted areas of upstate SC and western NC will be extended the flexibility needed to help them through this difficult time,” Brooks said.
“We’re always here to assist our customers,” he said.
Customers without power are in the “harder and hardest hit areas,” Brooks said. “So, these would be places that we are doing more rebuilding of infrastructure than repair. Some areas have been completely devastated, and all infrastructure is being rebuilt.”
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