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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/carbonsw/public_html/carbonswitchcms/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114In August we took a break from writing about climate and energy efficiency solutions like heat pumps<\/a>, home insulation<\/a>, hybrid hot water heaters<\/a>, and LED lighting<\/a> and published a report that showed that millions of American households would soon lose utility shutoff protections, including millions of recently unemployed people and households under the poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Journalists at The Wall Street Journal, Time, CNBC, NPR, Politico, Quartz and many other media companies used the data from our report and wrote heartbreaking stories about the people that have already been affected by utility shutoffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In that first report we focused primarily on expiring utility shutoff moratoriums and how many households could <\/em>lose electricity, gas, or water. We published very little data on how many households were<\/em> disconnected because very little data existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But over the last month we\u2019ve collected data from dozens of state utility commissions, public hearings, and utilities in order to fill some of those gaps. Over the coming weeks and months we plan to gather more data and continue to release it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the highlights from this report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carbon Switch<\/a> produces research and guides that help people and communities live more sustainably. Our guides help people reduce their energy use with home improvement projects like installing a heat pump<\/a> or improving their insulation<\/a>. The guides also help people make decisions like whether to buy a tankless water heater<\/a>, electric water heater<\/a>, or a heat pump water heater<\/a>, decisions that can lead to large amounts of emissions over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Through our research we saw the unjust utility shutoffs and energy injustice of the last few months and decided to write a series of reports uncovering data that was largely going unnoticed. Since its first publication the reports has been covered by outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Time, CNBC, and dozens more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In September we were able to obtain shutoff data for two states: Georgia and Illinois. We also found a presentation created by Wisconsin\u2019s utility commission that showed how many customers the utilities in that state planned to disconnect beginning in October if the state hadn\u2019t extended their moratorium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Georgia the PUC only collects data on Georgia Power, a utility owned by Southern Power that serves about two-thirds of the state\u2019s households. According to a spreadsheet the PUC sent us, Georgia Power disconnected 22,210 residential customers in August. The same spreadsheet listed 2,282,827 customers which means that they disconnected about 1% of their customers in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Illinois the PUC is currently tracking arrearages and shutoffs at the biggest investor-owned utilities (IOUs). According to a recent filing, Ameren Missouri (the state\u2019s biggest utility), disconnected 4,950 customers in August (0.4%). The Illinois PUC required all IOUs to estimate how many customers they planned to disconnect between September 2020 and February 2021. Ameren estimated they will disconnect 42,190 customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September Wisconsin\u2019s PUC voted to extend their moratorium through the spring of next year. But prior to that decision they gathered data from utilities on arrears and planned disconnects. According to a presentation summarizing the findings, 31.3% of customer accounts were in arrears as of August compared to 12.2% same time last year. Utilities planned to disconnect 54,051 in October when the moratorium was set to expire. We Energies \u2014 the largest utility in the state \u2014 planned to disconnect 27,461 customers (1.2%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next month we expect to get disconnect data from the following states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest challenges in reporting on arrearages and disconnects is the lack of data available. Prior to the pandemic most states weren\u2019t tracking how many customers were behind on their bills or how often utilities were disconnecting them. Those that were publishing the data \u2014 states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts \u2014 were doing so using difficult to navigate databases called \u201cdockets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So instead of being able to compare utilities and states using the same data, we\u2019re stuck with a broken system of dockets, PDFs, and poorly organized spreadsheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As mentioned above, we\u2019ve spent the last month collecting this data from utilities and state regulators. Below is a table documenting the percentage of customers in arrears at the utilities we were able to obtain data for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While comparing utilities and states can yield interesting insights, it should be done with caution and skepticism since the reporting period is different in some cases and the data is collected by regulators in different states with different procedures and standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\nKey highlights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why we wrote this report<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How many households have been disconnected?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How many customers are behind on their bills?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n