More and more Ohioans are struggling to pay their utility bills. That’s one clear takeaway from the latest utility reports showing how many customers had their power shut off because of unpaid bills.
Across the state’s regulated electric utilities, an average of 7.7% of customers had their power turned off because of past-due bills for the latest reporting year, ending May 31 — a higher rate than in any of the three preceding periods, which ran between 6% and 7%.
Each customer is one household or business, so the total number of people affected would be more than the total of nearly 345,000 disconnections. The average amount customers owed when their power was cut was more than $60 greater than it was for the year before.
The company reports filed at the end of June with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission are yet one more sign of the energy affordability crisis affecting households nationwide.
“Families are put in an extremely vulnerable position when electric utilities shut off their electricity for a debt,” said Shelby Green, a research and communications manager with the Energy and Policy Institute, a national watchdog group that promotes clean energy. Among other things, no electricity typically means no ability to cool or heat homes, refrigerate food, and turn lights on at night.
