In the face of a three-year upswing in delinquencies among its residential accounts, Connecticut’s largest electric and gas utility wants to report customer payment data to credit bureaus every month.
Eversource said monthly credit reporting of all residential payment activity, part of a proposed one-year pilot program not yet approved by the state’s utilities regulator, would spur more customers to pay due bills and could boost credit scores for those who pay on time.
The program could also hurt credit scores of approximately 85,000 of Eversource’s 1.2 million residential customers who are currently delinquent, according to the company’s filings with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).
Eversource said it would not report credit data on its commercial and industrial accounts, or on customers with EnergizeCT loans.
Eversource wants to report outstanding bills as delinquent that are $200 or greater and more than 93 days past due. The company had originally asked in April for a $75 monetary threshold for delinquency, which would have pushed approximately 175,000 customers into the delinquency category.
As of 2015, $121.8 million worth of outstanding Eversource residential bills were more than 90 days overdue, according to filings. That’s 31 percent of total accounts receivable, up from 27 percent in 2012.
Attorney General George Jepsen opposes the plan, arguing that it could hurt economically vulnerable residents and that ratepayers already have an incentive to pay their bills because their service could be shut off for nonpayment.
In addition, Jepsen said United Illuminating, now owned by Avangrid, has reported payment data to credit bureaus for more than 15 years, and he contended that Eversource could not show that the UI’s program had reduced the number of accounts in arrears or its accounts receivable figures.
Jepsen also took issue with Eversource’s plans to test the program in Connecticut before rolling it out in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, saying Eversource has not explained “why Connecticut customers should be the guinea pigs.”
