BGE shut-offs rise as temperatures fall

Though the number of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers having their power shut off has increased as the colder weather sets in, it's still fewer than the number of people who faced shut-offs this time last year, according to Public Service Commission records.

About 4,400 customers had the power to their homes cut off in September, the most recent month's data available. That's 7 percent fewer terminations than in September 2007.

BGE officials said the company does not have information available on how many of those turn-offs were in Anne Arundel County.

The decreased number of turn-offs for this September may be a result of milder weather. In a new PSC report that compared two years of data from October 2006 through September 2008, it stated that the cold season has been 4 percent warmer so far this year compared to last year, "which resulted in lower natural gas bills."

But people are still having some trouble paying their bills. Between August and September of this year, the number of customers who faced power terminations because they fell behind on their bills increased 34 percent, according to Public Service Commission records.

Linda Foy, BGE spokesman, said there isn't a single reason for the sharp increase, rather month-to-month comparisons of power turn-offs can fluctuate for a variety of reasons.

"It's based on a number of other factors," Ms. Foy said. "We have to look at our field resources. If there's been significant storm activity or gas leaks or maintenance issues, that's typically why you would see fluctuations."

By the end of summer The Capital reported that the number of BGE customers whose power had been cut off had leveled at around 3,000 households per month. In June, the total number of customers facing turn-offs was 3,150. In July there were 3,200, and in August there were just fewer than 2,900.

Despite the slight drop in shut-offs for September, PSC records show that statewide more Marylanders have fallen behind on their bills so far this year than the same period last year.

For the year to date, 90,000 homes in Maryland have had their electricity flipped off by a utility company for delinquency on their electric bills, which is a 23 percent increase over the previous year, according to a PSC report prepared for the Maryland Senate Finance and House Economic Matters committees.

Of those 2008 turn-offs, BGE was responsible for 39 percent of the statewide total and constituted a greater share of the turn-offs than any other utility in Maryland. BGE provides service to 56 percent of the state's nearly 2 million residential customers.

The company had the highest average number of customers with bills more than 21 days past due during the 12-month period between October 2007 and September 2008.

During that same period, customers owed BGE almost $81 million, an increase of more than $30 million from the prior year.

The PSC report suggests that the price of fuel and utility deregulation caused the drastic upswing. At BGE, customers owed an average of $368 from 2006 to 2007 and $596 over the past year - a 62 percent increase.

"It's probably a combination of the most vulnerable customers getting hit and the most aggressive rate spike," said Johanna Neumann, policy advocate for the Maryland Public Interest Research Group.

BGE customers were subject to a 72 percent rate increase in June 2007, after the General Assembly lifted price caps it imposed when the state's energy industry moved to deregulation.

"We have seen the past due amounts increase over (the past year), and certainly we believe that is at least in part due to rising energy prices and the transition to deregulation, but we have been taking a number of steps to help our customers," Ms. Foy said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.