The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Kentucky (State public utility commission) · Kentucky
- Level
- Sector regulator
- Authority
- KRS 278.030, 278.040(1)-(2)
- Issued
- 2020-09-21 Sept. 21, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-09-21; disconnections for nonpayment permitted beginning 2020-10-20 subject to the order's conditions (read as 2020-09-21)
- End
- Residential late-fee moratorium ended December 31, 2020; payment-plan obligations ran for the plan terms (six months to two years from October 2020) (read as 2020-12-31)
- In force
- Sept. 21, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Other
- Addressees
- all Commission-jurisdictional electric, gas, water and sewer utilities
- Functions reached
- OP billing and collections (mandatory default payment plans; no residential late fees to Dec. 31, 2020)
- CB customer base (arrearages of March 16-October 1, 2020 spread over 6-24 months)
- SV disconnection work resumed only from Oct. 20, 2020 under conditions
- OF customer-contact obligations
- Collection
- State utilities, housing and agriculture agencies AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG
Operative words
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that:... 2. Utilities shall create payment plans of arrearages of no less than six months and no longer than two years in duration for all customers who have accumulated arrearages from service rendered on or after March 16, 2020, and before October 1, 2020. Regardless of the length of the payment plan, default payment plans shall only require the customer to pay a fixed, equal installment over the term of the plan. 3. Utilities shall make all reasonable efforts to contact the customers who have received default payment plans.... 6. A utility shall not be permitted to deviate from its tariffs, particularly regarding disconnections, unless permitted herein or by a subsequent Commission Order.
Enforcement
KRS 278.990; the order states that 'the moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment will be lifted beginning October 20, 2020' subject to the conditions and continues 'the moratorium on the assessment of late payment charges for residential customers only... until December 31, 2020'
Notes
The order recites that the March 16 order 'directed utilities to temporarily cease disconnections for nonpayment, waive all late payment charges, and urged utilities to offer lenient payment plans,' that the Commission conducted discovery on 30 utilities and water districts, and that 'a historic number of individuals are nevertheless, for a variety of reasons, confined primarily to their homes.'
Retrieval noteText layer partly garbled in places; the ordering paragraphs at pp. 17-19 read cleanly.