PWP Plans To Start Collecting Late Fees Thursday

The Pasadena Water and Power Department will resume charging late fees on delinquent accounts on Thursday, and may resume utility shutoffs for non-payment in September.

“Beginning July 1, PWP will reinstate late fees per City Council’s authorization,” Water and Power posted on its website. “Non-payment of late fees will lead to electric service disconnects for past due accounts.”

According to Margie Ott, public information officer for Pasadena Water and Power, shutoffs won’t begin until September at the earliest. 

“If a residential customer has an outstanding balance for charges, which only applies to charges assessed after July 1, they would receive the first late fee notice on the next bill,” Ott explained. 

“If the balance is not paid off by the time the second bill is due, a second reminder — a late fee notice — would be mailed. And if the outstanding balance remains, the customer will receive a ‘notice for electric disconnect’ by mail. Therefore, the soonest a residential customer could get an electric disconnect is Sept. 1 (bill issued varies depending on the bill cycle).”

Ott said the process allows customers several opportunities to put their account balance in good standing. All customers receive three notices — two late notices and the electric disconnect notice. 

Customers are encouraged to contact PWP Customer Service to establish a payment plan to help manage their entire outstanding balance and to prevent disconnection of electrical service.

PWP also offers low-income electric customers several bill assistance options, including Project APPLE, in which the City Council recently increased the city’s annual one-time support from $100 to $200. 

As of Dec. 31 Americans owed utility companies more than $30 billion, the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, NEADA, which represents state directors of low-income energy aid programs, told the Washington Post. 

“We’ve never seen numbers like this before,” said Mark Wolfe, NEADA’s executive director. “The question is, how do we keep families connected to the grid and in their homes when they don’t have income coming in? .?.?. We’ve never had a situation where this many people haven’t paid a bill in more than nine months, and we still have a long time to go.”

The city was hoping to receive some federal or state assistance to directly reimburse water and power utilities, but no proposal was included in COVID-19 stimulus funding.

At the same time, while the suspension of late fees and utility shut-offs provided a temporary measure of relief, it does not relieve customers of their obligation to pay utility bills, PWP said last month.

Through most of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) provided financial relief to its customers by refunding at least $11.4 million in utility underground (UUG) surtaxes, which were collected over a two-year period beginning in April 2018.

The utility also suspended collection of new UUG fees, amounting to about $2 million, for six months.

“Since the end of March 2020, the amount of unpaid utility bills has increased from about $1.3 million to over $8.4 million as of March 31, 2021,” PWP said in a staff report for a May City Council meeting. 

“These arrears are over five times higher than that was experienced in pre-pandemic times and are still increasing considerably,” the report states.