Utility sector leaders share policy lessons learned during pandemic

A panel of leading representatives across a variety of utility services sectors this week discussed the key lessons learned in the past 18 months, and the changes their sectors – gas, electricity, water and telecommunications – would like to see to help them better serve customers and keep the juice flowing through the next public health emergency.

This week the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Policy Summit featured a session on Wednesday titled, “Moving Out of Crisis: Lessons for a Future After COVID-19,” where panelists also discussed the business practices that began as pandemic adaptations that they’re keeping in place going forward.

A major theme of the discussion was how to get customers affected by the next pandemic more quickly connected with relief funds to keep the lights on.

Every panel member agreed that shut-off moratoriums proved vitally important at the onset of the pandemic because water, electricity, gas and broadband are all essential services.

“COVID enlarged our low-income bucket and created a whole new physically and financially challenged group that needed help,” said Obi Linton, commissioner with the Maryland Public Service Commission.

“There were new groups of customers that needed support,” agreed Tara Oglesby, vice president of Customer Experience at Ameren Missouri. “Not just low-income customers. People got sick and couldn’t pay, or two-income households went to one.”

But eventually, as extra relief money started to flow from the federal government – from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for example in the case of a record $8.7 billion boost to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) – it became time to restart shut-off notices, which some panelists reported doing last fall.

“We started disconnection notices, too, to motivate consumers to take advantage of funding that was available,” said Oglesby.

Utility call centers that lost 90 percent of their call volume during the moratorium lit up again, and employees, now working from home, helped consumers apply for the needed assistance. Ameren Missouri also sent out emails to pandemic-affected customers asking them to not leave the federal money on the table.

Rob Maclean, president & CEO of SouthWest Water Company, is hoping that consumer relief funds are extended, because the pandemic is not over yet, and because the economic affects, like COVID itself, is lingering for many.

With the pandemic skyrocketing the demand almost overnight for Zoom meetings, telehealth appointments and distance learning for students, Rick Cimerman, vice president of External & State Affairs at the NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, wants to encourage the federal government to make the Emergency Broadband Benefit permanent. “We want Congress to act,” he said.

A goal for the next pandemic, agreed the panelists, is to have future relief money flow better to consumers, especially when it hits the state level, where panelists observed some administrative delays.

A key lesson the experts mentioned is to drill for emergencies – not just in order to keep workers safe and essential services available – but to still be able to progress with long-term plans, like innovation in the gas industry to reduce emissions and continuing efforts in broadband to shore up cyber security.

Lastly, panelists discussed COVID-pivot business processes that might have staying power.

Linton mentioned that in Maryland the commission will be continuing, at least partly, the virtual public hearings and meetings it initiated in the wake of the pandemic. “We found that public participation went up with virtual hearings where we receive public comments,” he said. “We also developed public electronic filing processes for the pandemic, and they are very popular. We will maintain those in some way.”

Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the American Gas Association, said the gas industry would be allowing call center employees to continue to work from home. “Job satisfaction went up. Performance went up,” she said.

Panelists also cited employees in general who want to continue working from home, and their plans to allow them to do so, in total or at least part-time during the workweek.

Chris Ayers, president of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) hinted that it will be important to accommodate workers as much as possible who are interested in working from home, for work-life balance.

“We have employees retiring because of work-from-home,” he said. “People decided they liked being home and liked spending time with their families.”