Energy Alabama is among a dozen organizations that have called on the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA) to urge its member utilities to immediately halt service disconnection and late fees for families during the coronavirus pandemic.
TVPPA’s members include the electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities who serve 9 million people across seven states in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service area. In the letter, the groups identified five of TVPPA’s large utilities that had taken these kinds of actions to protect their customers, adding that many TVPPA members may still be charging customers late fees and cutting off service for non-payment.
TVA has authorized deferred wholesale power payments in its service area, according to the groups’ letter, and increased federal funding to help low-income households with energy bills was included in the recent federal stimulus package. TVPPA members should not cut off service or add late fees onto the bills of families who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in dire economic straits for the foreseeable future.
This tool from Appalachian Voices allows you to find out if your local utility has implemented a Covid-19 policy, and provides information for who to call if they have not done so.
