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CPS customers falling behind on bills due to weather, gas prices

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In the early days of the pandemic, CPS Energy stopped shutting off power to customers with unpaid bills. Since it resumed household disconnections at the start of this year, the utility has had a hard time collecting.

And the total of past-due bills is soaring.

CPS ratepayers owe the city-owned utility $162 million in bills at least 30 days past-due. That figure has jumped 60 percent from about $101 million at this time last year.

CPS officials expected that resuming disconnections this year would push most customers with past-due bills to either pay what they owed or set up a payment plan. But the near-record temperatures this month have prevented CPS from disconnecting eligible households because the utility doesn’t cut off customers’ power during heat waves.

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“It’s been a little slow going on resuming disconnects,” interim CEO Rudy Garza said at a CPS board meeting last week. “We’re going to have a stop-and-go situation through the summer because of the heat.”

CPS customers become eligible for disconnection if they haven’t contacted CPS to set up a payment plan, and if their bills are from six to nine weeks overdue. But extreme weather delays that.

CPS received $20 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which it will use to clear the balances of many customers’ accounts.

In April, 26,000 customers got caught up on their bills, Garza said, but more are falling past due every month.

The average residential CPS bill in April was $136, up 20 percent from a year earlier. Most of that increase was caused by a jump in the price of natural gas, which CPS both provides to homes and uses as a fuel as its power plants. The spot price of natural gas hit $8.21 per unit last week, nearly triple its price a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The high cost of natural gas, which CPS passes through to customers, “is pushing more people into past-due balances,” Garza said.

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And recent near-record temperatures — which drive customers to crank up air conditioning and use more electricity — are also sending bills higher. CPS’ electric sales from February through April were 4 percent higher than the utility expected, as a result of the weather.

Because of that, CPS now is “anticipating more bad debts,” Chief Financial Officer Cory Kuchinsky said during the meeting.

“It’s not looking fantastic,” he said. “That’s why (Vice President of Customer Strategy Deanna Hardwick’s) team is doing a bigger effort and push to try and get people on payment plans.”

CPS officials urged customers behind on their utility bills to visit CPS customer fairs to find bill assistance or start a payment plan to avoid disconnection. The utility’s next fair is Thursday at the West Education Center on Enrique Barrera Parkway. Another will follow June 8 at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church on the North Side.

“We’ve still got some work to do on getting folks caught up,” Garza said. “It’s difficult.”

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net

Originally Appeared Here

Filed Under: COMMUNICATIONS

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