The offices of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in New Britain, Conn., in September 2019 file photo. PURA officials have proposed fining Orange-based Avangrid and three of its subsidiary utilities $4.48 million for the companies bill collection practices during the pandemic.
Alexander SouleConnecticut's Public Utilities Authority has fined four utilities owned by Orange-based Avangrid $4.48 million for referring inactive accounts to third-party collection agencies without providing adequate notice to residential customers of what they had done.
PURA commissioners voted unanimously Monday to impose a fine against Avangrid's United Illuminating, Connecticut Natural Gas, and Southern Connecticut Gas companies as part of a draft decision handed down by agency officials.
The ruling dates back to an investigation PURA started in March at the request of Connecticut's Office of Consumer Counsel regarding utility debt collection practices that appeared to violate consumer protections state officials had put in place because of economic hardships related to the pandemic.The protections put in place included a moratorium on service shut-offs.
Avangrid has until Nov. 19 to request a hearing before PURA regarding the fine. The company has until Nov. 14, 2022 to file written exceptions to the draft ruling.
If Avangrid's appeal of the fine is unsuccessful, the majority of the money will be paid to Operation Fuel, a non-profit entity engaged in assisting Connecticut consumers struggling with energy bills.
Gage Frank, an Avangrid spokesman, said the company and its subsidiary utilities "maintain that they have respected and complied with the moratorium, and that the collection activity involving the accounts that are the subject of the investigation pre-dated the moratorium."
"Caring for our customers is the highest priority for UI, SCG and CNG, and reflecting our commitment to help them during these challenging times, the companies continue to offer energy assistance programs and payment plans for those facing difficulties paying their bills,” Frank said.
In its draft decision, PURA's commissioners said “the collection practices of Avangrid were especially egregious,”
"Unlike other utilities, Avangrid also continued to refer delinquent accounts to its legal collections firm throughout the pandemic," the draft decision said in part. "Avangrid has referred over 21,000 customers to its legal collections firm since April of 2020. Avangrid’s legal collections firm has attempted to contact customers regarding their outstanding balances over 110,000 times since April of 2020, but did not include information in all correspondence about the COVID-19 Payment Plan or any other payment plan."
PURA's commissioners said in their ruling that “Avangrid exercised nearly no oversight over its collections firm."
While PURA's investigation found the Avangrid utilities did not initiate any new lawsuits against customers during the pandemic seeking to recover money that was owed to the companies, when "a customer with a pre-COVID judgement missed a payment ... Avangrid then applied for a wage execution without directly and proactively contacting the customer to try to enroll them " in payment programs.
"Seeking to garnish wages is one of the most egregious collection practices a company can engage in,” the draft decision said in part.
Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said PURA's ruling holds the three Avangrid utilities "accountable for its harmful pursuit of wage garnishments and failure to inform some of Connecticut’s most vulnerable customers about the payment plan specially designed to assist struggling customers during the pandemic.” Coleman's office represents the interests of utility ratepayers and in August, she had asked PURA officials to consider imposing civil penalties against Avangrid.
“Ensuring our utilities adopt more equitable utility billing, credit, and collections practices is a high priority for me as Consumer Counsel," she said. "UI should have been seeking to assist low-income customers during the unprecedented financial challenges that Covid-19 inflicted upon them, not placing greater pressures on these already overburdened customers and their families.”
luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com