Central Hudson seeks 16% delivery rate hike for electricity; 19% for gas - The Daily Freeman

Central Hudson seeks 16% delivery rate hike for electricity; 19% for gas - Daily Freeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Central Hudson on Monday announced it will seek double-digit rate hikes, in part, to pay for the cost of implementing an agreement it reached four days ago with the state Public Service Commission to expedite the transition to monthly meter readers.

In a press release announcing its rate hike plan, the utility said the increase would also help it “meet the evolving needs of its customers and comply with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,” to “provide the necessary resources to upgrade outdated equipment and infrastructure that is past the end of its useful life and ensure continued safe and reliable utility operations and support an evolving workforce and new technology to meet the needs of the 21st-century grid.”

The company said it would seek a 16% rate hike for electric customers and a 19% hike for natural gas customers. If approved by the Public Service Commission, the increased delivery rate plan would take effect on July 1, 2024. The current rate plan expires on June 30, 2024.

According to the Central Hudson press release, the new rate would add roughly $1 a day to the “typical” electric customer and $1 a day to the “typical” natural gas customer.

Central Hudson electricity and gas delivery charges went up in July under a plan approved by the Public Service Commission in November 2021, for the final year of its current three-year rate plan. In the last hike on July 1, Central Hudson spokesman Joseph Jenkins said that a typical residential customer was to see an increase of approximately 1.4% on monthly electric bills and approximately 1.1% on monthly gas bills.

The request comes even as the utility continues to come under fire for a billing debacle that left customers and elected officials outraged. The agreement struck last week stems from the thousands of complaints lodged against the company as a result of those billing problems.

That agreement also stipulates that Central Hudson’s shareholders, not customers, will pay for “an independent monitor to verify system and operational improvements.”

U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, who was among the earliest officials to speak out about Central Hudson’s billing problems and the impact they were having on customers, decried the proposed rate hike and demanded the company put any increases on hold until their long-standing billing problems are “fully addressed.”

“Hudson Valley families are still reeling from a year-plus of Central Hudson’s systemic failures,” Ryan, D-Gardiner, said in a statement. “While the company is now working to fix these issues and rebuild trust, it’s absolutely unacceptable to raise costs on our hard-working families until all of their billing issues are fully remedied,”

Ryan said that since last year when he first called for an investigation into Central Hudson’s disastrous billing practices, he has received more than 11,000 formal complaints and a New York State Department of Public Service report revealed that Central Hudson’s billing system was riddled with hundreds of programming errors leading to nearly 5,000.

Central Hudson said that if approved by the Public Service Commission, the utility would use some of the money to help it transition from bimonthly to monthly meter reading; upgrade its customer service technologies, including its Interactive Voice Response system, web and mobile resources; expansion of its financial assistance program and increase in its workforce by some 20%.

It said it would also allocate some of the monies to replace aging infrastructure, which it said “is crucial for maintaining safe and reliable utility services for customers,” as well as incorporate technologies to facilitate greater interconnection of clean, renewable resources and support the adoption of energy conservation and use of electric vehicles and heat pumps and implement measures necessary to comply with the state’s clean energy mandates.

The rate plan proposal will undergo a lengthy review process by the Public Service Commission, which must grant final approval and has the authority to approve, modify or reject the proposed terms.