Rising energy prices are a growing concern among the public, and state utility regulators have taken note. The Missouri Public Service Commission has started a process to study the effectiveness of energy assistance programs.
State regulators have asked investor-owned utilities in Missouri to provide data on the payment plans and bill assistance programs they offer customers. The commission has regulatory authority over corporate utilities, such as Ameren and Spire, but not municipal utilities run by cities such as Columbia and Jefferson City.
Rich Germinder, a senior policy and strategic initiatives adviser to the Missouri Public Service Commission, said regulators and staff will use the data gathered to evaluate efficiencies and consider changes to programs aimed at helping low-income residents and senior citizens pay their energy bills. Commissioners may also consider making new programs available.
“Disconnection is a situation that nobody wants to be in and so if there's a way to avoid that and to keep folks current and also make sure they're obtaining their essential services, then we want to know that we're doing the best job of that that we can do,” he said.
Germinder said it’s the Commission’s duty to balance reliability with affordability when regulating the state’s largest utility providers. He said utility affordability has become “a much bigger conversation and a more important conversation” and the effort to study effectiveness of energy assistance programs was spurred by a massive utility law passed by the Missouri Legislature in the spring, which gives utilities new billing authority.
“We'll get an opportunity to see and take a look at what works well, what doesn't work well, what are some programs that we can learn some things from?,” Germinder said.
David Yonce is managing director of regulatory affairs for Spire Missouri, a gas utility that provides service to customers on the east and western sides of the state. Spire staff are gathering data that regulators asked for, including what programs the company provides, how they work and how they’re funded.
“I think our programs that we do have to offer work really well,” Yonce said. “We think it's a good opportunity for the commission to solicit this information from our peers. We do talk a lot, but this will allow all the information to be aggregated in one spot — and so we may learn things from other utilities. Other utilities may learn things from us.”
Throughout the last year, more than 5,000 Spire Missouri customers were on a payment plan and aid was provided to customers more than 40,000 times, according to company spokesperson Jason Merril.
Ameren is the electric utility that serves a large portion of central Missouri. It provides gas for the cities of Columbia and Jefferson City.
“We are committed to providing safe, reliable and affordable electric and natural gas service to all our customers,” said Steve Wills, senior director of regulatory affairs for Ameren Missouri, in a statement to KBIA. “Thanks to Senate Bill 4, energy providers across the state — including Ameren Missouri — have the opportunity to establish rate structures and programs aimed at addressing affordability for income-eligible customers.”
Darin Preis is executive director of Central Missouri Community Action, an agency that distributed federal utility assistance to eight mid-Missouri counties and said there’s a growing need among Missouri residents.
“We served 14,000 people last year and provided utility assistance (to) over 8,000 households totaling more than $3 million and we didn't even touch the need,” he said. “There's still people who are pounding down our door because they need assistance and they're in crisis.”
Missouri's average residential energy costs are below the national average, but did increase by more than 6% in just the last year.
Preis said challenges with cost of living and affording basic services is “making its way into the middle class.”
“It's obvious to anybody that pays utility bills that rates have gone up and that it's quite expensive these days,” he said.
Preis recommends regulators look into reducing the paperwork required to get assistance and consider removing agencies like the one he runs from the process — instead having utilities directly apply credits to the bills of customers who need it.
Investor-owned electric, gas, water, and sewer corporations that operate an assistance program have until Nov. 14 to weigh in on the programs that provide aid. The public is also invited to comment. There is no deadline for when regulators will announce their recommendations or next steps.
