Evidentiary hearings with the PSC continued this week in Albany. Central Hudson has submitted a one-year plan starting in July that would increase its delivery rates for electric and gas by 16 and 19 percent, respectively. The move has sparked outcry from Central Hudson customers and lawmakers alike. They say prices are already too high and they’re still struggling with errors caused by the utility’s switch to a new billing system in 2021.
A recent press conference with Congressman Pat Ryan highlighted the impact felt by some Hudson Valley businesses. Joseph Beichert, who owns Timely Signs in Kingston, says he received an erroneous bill for more than $12,000 in 2022. He says he sent pictures of his meter in an attempt to rectify the situation months later, but the business still faces roughly $16,000 in charges.
“I hope we can clarify the situation with Central Hudson. We’ve scheduled another meeting. We scheduled a meeting last year, with absolutely no solutions," says Beichert.
Ryan, a Democrat from the 18th District, says his office has dealt with more than 11,000 incorrect or missing bills since 2022. Central Hudson Spokesman Joe Jenkins says the utility has two open houses planned where customers can meet with a representative face-to-face. The first is February 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the utility’s office on Ulster Avenue in Lake Katrine. The second is at its office on Little Britain Road in New Windsor on March 6, also from 5 to 7 p.m.
That said, Jenkins maintains the majority of Central Hudson’s billing errors have been fixed. He says most recent complaints stem from lingering confusion over resolved cases, rather than new issues.
“The truth of the matter is, the billing system that we implemented in September of 2021 is performing similar or better than our legacy system in almost every key metric," he notes.
Central Hudson has said it needs the rate hike to replace aging infrastructure and keep up with New York’s climate laws. Jenkins says the funds would also be used to better the utility’s response to severe weather, and increase customer service staff. Other reasons listed by the utility in the past have included customer arrears, and Jenkins admits inflation has upped the company’s construction costs as well. Central Hudson doesn’t generate its own power, so it doesn’t make money off energy supply costs: it profits from the value of its infrastructure and the delivery rate to use it.
But customers are being hit by inflation as well, and billing errors with Central Hudson haven’t helped. Dave Amato owns two restaurants in Kingston. He says the utility bill for Ole Savannah Southern Table and Bar once went up about 300 percent in 2022 to $15,000, an increase he attributes to Central Hudson’s reliance on estimated bills, rather than monthly meter readings.
Amato says he eventually received a letter awarding him $54,000 in credits toward his energy bills — but he never saw the funds.
“That’s money that I could have used to pay my employees, hire workers, and invest in my property," says Amato.
State Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson, meanwhile, is touting legislation passed last year requiring utilities to bill their customers in a timely manner. The Democrat from the 104th District in Newburgh is also sponsoring a bill this session, with State Senator Michelle Hinchey, that would restrict utilities from relying on estimated billing.
Jacobson says customers have simply lost trust with Central Hudson.
“Customer have learned not to trust the numbers from Central Hudson, and neither should the PSC, with respect to the requested rate hike," he adds.
Jenkins says Central Hudson is in the process of transitioning from bi-monthly to monthly meter readings. About 13,000 accounts have made the switch so far, but Jenkins says there are still some instances where customers will see estimated bills. For example: if a meter malfunctions, if staff are busy responding to outages, or if a meter is locked inside a building or behind a gate.
Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, a Democrat from the 103rd District in Kingston, has gone as far as to suggest that New Yorkers should buy out companies like Central Hudson to establish publicly-owned utilities. Advocates say that would ultimately save ratepayers money, but examples in the U.S. are rare: last November, voters in Maine widely rejected a ballot question seeking to turn the state’s two largest electric companies into a publicly-owned nonprofit.
So, for now, Shrestha says her focus is on promoting public renewable energy projects, to drive down supply costs.
“Not only would public renewables introduce affordable energy into our wholesale market, it would also fund automatic discounts for low-and moderate-income households in our disadvantaged communities," she explains. "So, we absolutely need to see this as a goal that we are fully committed to.”
A decision date for Central Hudson’s rate case has not been announced, but a PSC spokesman says such requests typically require an 11-month review period – which would end in June. In a statement, the PSC says in part: “Nothing about a utility’s rate case is taken for granted or assumed. For the major electric and gas utilities, the approved rates after this process are nearly always dramatically lower than what is requested.”
