‘More uncertainty’: Beaufort Co. residents could lose power as utility restarts disconnections
The bills were stacking up for Rebecca Scoon.
A single mom in Beaufort, Scoon hadn’t lost her job to COVID-19, but the pandemic still upended her regular expenses this summer.
With her five kids at home 24/7, she had to spend more money on food. Her monthly electric bill also rose.
“I saw no help,” said Scoon, 36, who works at an Enmarket gas station.
Late last month, she turned to the United Way of the Lowcountry for help paying off her outstanding utility costs, including about $730 she owed to Dominion Energy.
That helped Scoon relax a bit.
But nonprofits in Beaufort County now fear a possible uptick in similar cases.
Dominion Energy’s temporary statewide moratorium on disconnections for nonpayment expires Monday. The utility had roughly 54,000 customers in the county as of late July.
“It had to happen eventually,” said Chrystie Turner, vice president of community impact at the United Way of the Lowcountry. “Unfortunately, the shoe dropped right with the opening of the school year.”
Gov. Henry McMaster in mid-March urged utilities across South Carolina to suspend disconnections for nonpayment during the rapidly-evolving COVID-19 crisis. The S.C. Public Service Commission later directed providers to follow the governor’s request.
That requirement, though, ended in May. Locally, the Palmetto Electric Cooperative resumed disconnections earlier this year.
A Palmetto Electric spokesman, Tray Hunter, previously said there wasn’t a significant year-over-year increase in nonpayment disconnections in June and July.
Paul Fischer, a spokesman for Dominion Energy, in a statement Thursday wrote that the company has recently expanded its payment plan options, which give residents more flexibility to gradually pay their outstanding bills.
The company, he wrote, is offering a six-month installment plan for people working through “larger balances.” Those monthly payments are interest-free, he wrote. No down payment is required.
There’s also a short-term option, according to Fischer, that would typically give ratepayers an extra five to seven days to handle a bill.
“We recognize that many customers across our service territory continue to struggle financially due to the pandemic,” Fischer wrote. “We remain committed to helping those customers who need our help the most.”
The utility has mailed disconnection notices to customers and is also calling residents who haven’t paid their bills.
Fischer on Friday morning said he was checking to see whether Dominion Energy could provide data on the number of notices sent to S.C. customers since Sept. 1.
He wrote Thursday that “based on the customer’s billing cycle,” disconnections could start in late September if they don’t move onto a payment plan or pay their bills.
‘Something to watch’
Turner, of the United Way, said there’s been a shift in local residents’ priorities since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a sweeping order halting many evictions across the country beginning Sept. 4.
“The worry before was ... ‘Will I be homeless?’” Turner said. “Now, there are a whole lot of families that are in danger of losing utilities right at the beginning of the school year.”
Over the past two weeks, she’s noticed an uptick in residents asking the United Way for help paying power bills. Some of those people had received disconnection notices from Dominion Energy, she said.
“The timing of it couldn’t be worse,” Turner said, considering the Beaufort County School District’s online-only start to classes.
With the company’s voluntary disconnection moratorium, residents let power bills slip out of mind, she said. They had to focus on other things, like buying food.
Scoon, for her part, can’t remember if she ever received a “final” disconnection notice from Dominion Energy.
But her situation is what concerns Turner: other people around the Lowcountry also face stacks of old electric bills.
Kimberly Hall, executive director of Bluffton Self Help, said Dominion Energy is good to work with and tries to get people onto payment plans.
Her impression, she said, is that utility companies don’t want to shut peoples’ lights off, either.
Regardless, when there’s a looming round of disconnections, there’s generally an increase in people who need emergency financial assistance, Hall said.
“It’s something to watch,” she said. “It creates more uncertainty and fear for folks.”
