The Board of Public Utilities’ cold weather rule was the subject of a discussion on Wednesday evening.
No action was taken after a BPU committee discussed the policy.
A resident, Jared Emmons, brought the policy issue to the board in recent months. He said the BPU’s policy is different from the Kansas Corporation Commission’s cold weather rule.
BPU’s policy says it will not disconnect residential customers when it is 32 degrees or below for 24 hours, while the KCC’s rule was 35 degrees for 48 hours.
Board member Jeff Bryant said if a house was disconnected when the temperature is 32 degrees or 40 degrees, it didn’t make much difference as it would still be cold. He thought they could ask water department staff for their opinion on temperatures when pipes freeze, and use that as the temperature for the disconnection policy.
BPU officials said the BPU’s disconnection procedure was longer than other area utilities. Notices start going out and 25 days later, BPU can disconnect if the weather is not too cold.
Customers faced with disconnection can make payment arrangements with the BPU, and if they don’t, then the utility can disconnect them, according to BPU officials.
Bryant said he thought that other utilities require a payment arrangement to be in place for the customer to qualify for the cold weather policy.
Disconnections are now done electronically, according to BPU officials.
Bryant said if the BPU updates the cold weather policy, customers should be reminded that they can make or post a payment online electronically. That could get the power turned back on the same day.
To get their electric service restored, customers have to pay all past due fees, bills and penalties, plus a deposit if necessary, according to the BPU’s current policy. If they call the BPU and make payment arrangements before their service is disconnected, then they avoid the reconnection fees.
Bryant and BPU committee members discussed requiring customers to go on a payment arrangement if they had a disconnection notice two or three times in a year. Bryant said that every time a customer’s utilities are disconnected, there are also soft costs to the utility in accounting, customer service and billing, creating more costs that have to be paid. These costs are passed on to the rest of the BPU’s customers, according to Bryant.
Board member Bob Milan said it was his opinion that the customer has the responsibility to pay the bill. The customer has the responsibility to notify the BPU and make arrangements so the customer will not be cut off, he said.
Emmons said during the public comment time at the regular BPU meeting that the KCC rule is not contingent on having a payment plan in place.
Also, he asked for information on supporting data and analysis of a previous staff presentation projecting BPU revenue losses if the rule was changed to the KCC version. He had made that request a few weeks previously, and did not get the information requested.
According to BPU members, the discussion on the cold weather policy will be continued at another later meeting. They are not currently under the cold weather policy, as it ends each March 31.
The BPU’s current cold weather policy states: During the period of Nov. 1 through March 31, BPU will not disconnect residential electric customers for nonpayment of bills when the National Weather Service forecasts the temperature will remain at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours. BPU will check the weather forecasts daily between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Water service can be disconnected at any time.
The policy also states that to avoid being disconnected, a customer must contact BPU to check eligibility and establish a payment arrangement.
The BPU also has a hot weather rule that states that during the summer, or any day when the National Weather Service forecasts the temperature will rise above 95 degrees, or the heat index will rise above 105 degrees, BPU will not disconnect electric service for nonpayment of bills.
To see previous stories about this topic, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/bpu-to-review-policies-on-cold-weather-rule/
https://wyandotteonline.com/resident-questions-bpus-cold-weather-rule/
Though I cannot speak for the water department about freezing temperatures I do have new residential construction experience. The short of it is a water line/pipe can freeze overnight with only having only one night of freezing weather. A few houses away in the same neighborhood may be able to go all week in the same freezing temperatures before a line breaks because of freezing. Some reasons for that are before thought thinking in the way water lines were built in to the home and another reason can be competent or incompetent building inspectors who can foresee or just flat out miss potential problems of freeze up during construction – that would be experience or an ignorance depending who was who at the time.