Members of a state commission on Wednesday heard a proposal to increase transparency around how often Virginians have their electricity shut off for nonpayment.
The plan would involve creating a public website that tracks information such as how many households get their electricity disconnected, how long their power stays off on average and how much money customers owe on their bills at the time of disconnection.
The data would be aggregated and anonymous to avoid identifying individual customers, said Carrie Hearne, executive director of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation.
“We are envisioning a data dashboard with visualization that is easily accessible by the public and stakeholders,” Hearne said.
Hearne said the data would come from electric utilities and cooperatives, which ideally would report it monthly to provide insight into how seasonal weather trends impact disconnections.
Representatives with Dominion Energy, Appalachian Power and Virginia’s electric cooperatives agreed Wednesday that if the proposed dashboard comes to fruition, it should be maintained by the State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities in Virginia.
(Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
About 25 other states have such dashboards already, Hearne said. As an example, she cited Michigan, which offers charts showing monthly disconnection figures in recent years with supplemental information such as disconnections by income group.
The staff of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation recommended the plan to a subcommittee focused on energy affordability at a meeting Wednesday in Richmond. The full commission could take up the matter, and ultimately, lawmakers would decide whether to bring the proposal before the General Assembly in January.
The push for more transparency around customer disconnections comes as rising electric bills have been a hot topic of discussion among lawmakers, consumer advocates and everyday Virginians.
During January’s General Assembly session, lawmakers shared stories of residents facing monthly bills hundreds of dollars above average.
In April, Dominion Energy proposed raising the average residential customer’s bill by $21 per month, or about 15%, citing inflation and rising fuel costs.
The average Appalachian Power bill has risen by about $50 since mid-2022, although the utility has proposed a fuel cost decrease that could lower that average by $10 starting next month.
Appalachian is expected to submit its next rate proposal to state regulators in March. When it does, it is also expected to put forward a plan for reducing customer disconnections, which regulators ordered as part of its previous rate case.
In 2024, Dominion Energy tallied about 339,400 instances in which a residential customer’s power was cut off, while Appalachian Power saw about 43,700, according to data provided to Cardinal News by the SCC. Dominion has about 2.4 million residential customers in Virginia, while Appalachian has about 467,000, but some customers have experienced multiple disconnections.
Bill Murray, representing Dominion Energy, told the subcommittee that nearly 90% of customers whose power is disconnected get it reconnected within 24 hours. An Appalachian Power spokesperson has previously told Cardinal News that its average customer disconnection time is 12 hours.
Amanda Cox, representing Appalachian Power at Wednesday’s subcommittee meeting, said the company uses a variety of assistance programs to help eligible customers with their bills.
“Disconnect is our very last resort,” she said.
Many people who struggle financially will skip food or other necessities to pay their bill — a “silent problem” that doesn’t show up in disconnection data, said Dana Wiggins, director of the Center for Economic Justice at the Richmond-based Virginia Poverty Law Center.
“As somebody who could afford their bill said to me not that long ago in September, he said, ‘Well, what choice do we have? You just have to pay the bill or else,’” Wiggins said.
Legislation passed during the 2024 General Assembly session forbids disconnections under certain circumstances, including when the temperature is forecast to be at or below 32 degrees, or at or above 92 degrees.
Wiggins called the temperature-based moratorium an “amazing leap forward” but said further improvements could be made, such as protecting people whose power is cut off just before the temperature rises above 92 degrees.
Hearne suggested that lawmakers next summer could look at possibly tying the moratorium to the heat index — a value that combines temperature and humidity to more closely represent how people feel when it’s hot outside — rather than just the temperature.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, said Wednesday that disconnections are an important issue, but rising customer bills drove a lot of the discussion around energy during this year’s General Assembly.
“I would like to see some kind of a proposal that would provide better transparency about why each company’s bill is what it is, that consumers can access and see to provide clarity and transparency about that,” Surovell said.
Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, praised the commission staff’s focus on disconnections.
“I do not want us to ignore the reality of what poor families are facing,” Herring said.
The Commission on Electric Utility Regulation is scheduled to meet next on Nov. 6.