Sparked by reports from utility consumer organizations and a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) en banc hearing on the issue the previous day, the state’s major investor-owned utilities (IOU) Thursday agreed to stop any customer service shutoffs at least through the rest of the year.

CPUC President Michael Peevey announced at the commission’s business meeting that as a result of meetings on Wednesday following the CPUC hearing, all four IOUs agreed to a moratorium on shutoffs for all residential and small business utility customers, starting Monday and running through Jan. 3.

During the upcoming period, Peevey urged the utilities to carry out a “consumer counseling campaign” that includes:

“During this time, customers will not have their electricity or natural gas service shut off for nonpayment,” Peevey said. “However, this is not a moratorium on customers paying monthly utility bills. This is the first of several steps in our process to decrease the number of households experiencing disconnections.”

Peevey said Commissioner Dian Grueneich will head a CPUC-driven effort to establish “best practices” that each of the utilities can adopt. “We expect the utilities to adopt new, improved policies. If they are slow to act, believe me, we will act.”

Grueneich said the utilities need to guard against a spike in shutoffs occurring after the moratorium is lifted, and report on these efforts at the CPUC’s first meeting in the new year, which is Jan. 21.

The CPUC’s independent consumer unit, the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), praised the regulators’ action on the issue, which was raised in November in part by a report from DRA showing a significant increase in disconnections among low-income customers.

“The CPUC has used its power to take one less worry off vulnerable customers’ shoulders by requiring utilities to work with customers to design a bill payment schedule that can actually manage,” said Dana Appling DRA director. “The CPUC’s expectation of a positive outcome the day the moratorium is lifted sends the message that the utilities must spend that time getting customers back on track with their utility bills.”

Appling praised the upcoming January “Utility Best Practices Workshop,” which Grueneich will lead with the intention of further lowering the disconnection rates, particularly for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co., both of which showed higher numbers of disconnections, compared with Sempra Energy’s numbers.

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