Municipal utilities tell House committee disconnects are last resort as H.753 is debated

Representative Kathleen James convened the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure committee to hear testimony on H.753, a bill relating to utility service disconnections.

Scott Johnstone, general manager of Morrisville Water & Light and interim manager at Hyde Park Electric, testified for municipal utilities, describing disconnects as a measure utilities avoid whenever possible. "Disconnect is the very last resort," Johnstone said, explaining that municipal crews and customer-service staff use outreach, door hangers, partial payments and payment plans to prevent meter pulls.

Johnstone framed the issue as part of broader fiscal pressure on small utilities. He told the committee that sales volumes in the state have been essentially static for roughly 25 years and pointed to recent market volatility for wholesale power as a driver of higher costs. "The peak 1 hour cost was something like 92¢ a kilowatt hour, which was more than double the record ever set," he said, noting short-term procurement spikes that utilities cannot always recover in rates.

On provisions in H.753, Johnstone supported existing medical-protection practices but emphasized the value of ongoing re-certification. He described the current medical protection as "up to 3 months a year and no more than 2 consecutive," adding that his utility typically approves those certificates and favors monthly check-ins so long-term subsidies do not persist after a medical condition resolves.

The witness also described protections tied to extreme-heat alerts: his utility ceases disconnects when the department issues heat warnings and will sometimes suspend disconnects locally for a few days. He warned, however, that embedding such event responses into rigid regulatory calendars risks reducing local flexibility and responsiveness.

On reporting and compliance, Johnstone urged a lighter-touch option: require utilities to document hot-weather disconnect policies and reporting approaches in their integrated resource plans (IRPs) rather than imposing detailed new compliance metrics that can carry fines. He said such planning could be updated periodically — for example, every three years — and would allow regulators and the public to assess approaches without converting operational practices into inflexible mandates.

Johnstone also illustrated how early net-metering and efficiency programs can shift costs across customers and noted the practical limits of small utilities’ staffing when implementing new reporting programs. He gave examples of customer nonpayments ranging from about $100–$150 up to $600–$700 and said that on typical months his utilities may send a dozen or more notices but only disconnect one to three meters.

Johnstone closed by expressing sympathy for the bill's goals and saying he did not "personally see any for legislation at this time," while adding that municipal utilities will keep working with customers regardless of whether the Legislature takes action. The committee thanked the witness and moved to the next item; no vote was taken on H.753 during this session.