Emergency provision keeps electricity on Consumers given leeway during heat wave

08/11/2000

Associated Press

AUSTIN  Most Texans will be spared disconnection of electric service until fall under an emergency rule that state utility regulators approved Thursday.

"The message is we want customers to keep on their air conditioning during this heat for the rest of this summer into September," said Pat Wood, chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission.

The emergency provision requires utility companies regulated by the commission to keep residential customers' electricity running even if payments are past due.

The rule is similar to one the PUC implemented in the summer of 1998, although this year it also requires the customer to enter into a deferred-payment arrangement. The earliest a residential customer's electricity can be disconnected is Oct. 11.

The emergency rule strengthens the law prohibiting utilities from disconnecting electric service to any customer for at least two days after the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for any county in the utility's service area.

Since May 1, 42 people statewide have died of heat-related illnesses, including 10 in the last two weeks, Mr. Wood said. He lamented that the commission waited until August to take action.

"I regret that this was as late as it was. If one more person dies because we were slow and didn't get the message out, then that's a horrible burden," Mr. Wood said.

Thursday's action covers major investor-owned utilities in the state, such as TXU and Reliant Energy.

It doesn't apply to municipally owned utilities, such as those in San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville and Lubbock, or to rural electric cooperatives. But Mr. Wood said he expects those utilities, which provide service to about 15 percent of Texas residents, to abide by the plan.

The Texas Ratepayers Organization to Save Energy, or Texas ROSE, and the Texas Legal Service Center had petitioned the PUC to suspend disconnection of electric service through September.

Sometimes, fear of a high electric bill prevents a utility customer from using air conditioning, and that can be life-threatening, said Randall Chapman, executive director of Texas Legal Services Center.

"The inability to pay one's electric bill is not a capital crime in Texas. No one should die out of fear of high electric bills," he said.

Carol Biedrzyck, executive director of Texas ROSE, said she still worries about municipal utility customers who aren't covered by Thursday's PUC decision.

Bonnie Raines of Llano is one of them. Her electric bill from the city-owned utility increased from $60.77 in June to $307.89 in July for her 1,100-square-foot home.

"Oh my God, I almost had a stroke," she said. "We're having like a real small income and having a huge bill."

Ms. Raines is disabled by back surgery and her husband is retired from the carpentry industry. She said she hopes to get help paying her bill from a senior citizens service.

In the meantime, she said, she keeps one of her three window air conditioner units off, keeps dark curtains and foil on windows and hangs some clothes outdoors to dry instead of using her electric dryer.

"I do my part to try to save energy," she said

http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/139426_heatrule_11tex.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 11, 2000