BERLIN, Conn. — In the face of impending electric rate increases to take effect on Jan. 1, Eversource told FOX61 last week how consumers can save money by switching electric suppliers. But now it's been discovered that many of the people who tried to switch were told they couldn’t.
Historically, low-income customers have never been able to save money with a third-party supplier. So in 2019, the state blocked these so-called "financial hardship" customers from switching, essentially to protect people from themselves. The problem is that the data Eversource was using to determine who should be auto-enrolled into the program was faulty.
“It’s wrong,” said Charles Weinsteiger of East Hampton.
“Those customers are pretty mad," said Jess Cain, the VP of Customer Relations for Eversource.
The issue isn't the complete fault of Eversource. The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority known as PURA signed off on the plan. PURA told FOX61 they are currently revisiting that 2019 decision to block actual hardship customers from being able to shop, to see if it remains in the best interest of the public. Connecticut has a deregulated energy marketplace.
The issue affected about 1% of the roughly 190,000 customers that Eversource has identified as hardship eligible, however, that still represents thousands of people. These thousands of Eversource customers didn’t meet the income threshold for hardship assistance, had their accounts mislabeled, auto-enrolled and blocked from obtaining a better rate through a retail supplier.
“You shouldn’t be enrolling people in a program without their consent especially if they don’t even qualify for that program,” said Weinsteiger.
He said it took intervention from state utility regulator PURA to fix the issue.
“It was very frustrating," said Weinsteiger. "After the first call with Eversource, I never received paperwork…At this point, it was over five hours of my time on the phone with them so I contacted the state.”
Being labeled a hardship customer does have several important benefits. It means customers can get financial assistance if their bills are past due and service can’t be shut off. Eversource told FOX61 that coming out of COVID and seeing spiking inflation, their intent to overprotect was well-intentioned.
“They were better off with standard service. Now we are in a different time,” said Cain.
A time that allows some people to save about $70 per month. Eversource used marketing data to label some hardship customers.
“That marketing data would be sourced from places like the census or tax and property data. Publicly available. It’s not 100% and that was known going into it,” explained Cain.
FOX61 also reached out to the state Office of Consumer Council where Claire Coleman told FOX61 that Eversource used the marketing data, “...as opposed to the traditional household income verification process.
"Eversource took steps to rectify the situation once they identified the over-enrollment issue – they have briefed my office and we have discussed solutions. It is my expectation that the electric distribution company will be filing a motion to rectify the unintended consequences which the Office of Consumer Counsel would support," she said.
To fix the issue going forward and to take out the guesswork, Eversource says they are now coding their customers based on a newly minted data-sharing agreement with the state Department of Social Services.
Eversource isn’t the only company who experienced complaints related to switching. Bruce Blanchette of Colchester says his gripe is with third-party supplier Constellation.
“I got an ‘oops' email from Constellation saying they couldn’t process my information," Blanchette said. "They asked me to call in. I tried calling; 70-minute wait. I gave up and emailed PURA.”
For their role as Connecticut’s regulatory authority, PURA spokesperson Taren O’Connor told FOX61, they "became aware of this issue in the first week of December and has been working since then to assist any customer who has contacted the Authority.”
State regulators also told FOX61 that if affected customers want to get their hardship status removed, they first have to fill out a form with Eversource to opt out even though many of them never opted in. Processing could take up to five business days but customers shopping around for new suppliers should still be able to secure the same rate promised by the desired third-party supplier during enrollment.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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