Feb 12: Local Residents, Metro Justice and Unions Speak Out Against RG&E Shut off Crisis and Call Leaders to Act as Shut Offs Triple with Record Profits

BREAKING: RG&E Shut Offs Triple in 2024 to over 13,000; Profits Raise to $122 million

New numbers have been released for 2024, and Metro Justice, Unions, and personally affected residents and businesses held a press conference and rally at City Hall on Wednesday evening Feb 12 calling out the RG&E Shut Off Crisis and calling leaders to act on a public utility study. People and business who have been shut off shared their experiences. Over 50 people gathered to call for action, even in a blizzard. 

The numbers are startling: 12,217 homes and 1,196 businesses were shut off in 2024, for a total of 13,413 shut offs. This number is triple the shut offs of 2023, and is an all-time high in recent times. At the same time, new profit numbers for 2024 show that profits - just a few years ago $90 million, rose to $107 million in 2023 and are now $122 million in 2024. The foreign corporation that owns RG&E is draining our community of resources while leaving us out in the cold. 

Bills are too high. Rochester’s energy burden is third highest in the country. “RG&E has put our City in a shut off crisis. We’re tired of RG&E’s predatory and reckless practices. This foreign corporation can’t be trusted with our lives, and our leaders need to stand up and act.” commented Dr. Michi Wenderlich, Campaign & Policy Coordinator for Metro Justice. 

RG&E seemed to go on a shut off rampage from Aug-Oct of 2024, with 2,813 shut offs in September alone (see graph below). This may be because there are additional consumer protections against shut offs starting November 1 of each year. Usually RG&E doesn't shut off people when the County is providing financial assistance, but this year, there seemed to be a dramatic escalation of 3 day shut off notices directly before the time people were eligible for additional financial assistance through the Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP. 

The Federation of Social Workers strongly supports the Metro Justice’s RED (Rochester for Energy Democracy) efforts. “We see the trauma and stress that are caused for our clients when RG&E shuts off their service because they are struggling to pay their bills,“ said Federation president Christina Christman. She added, “Unfortunately, Rochester’s childhood poverty rate is among the highest in the country. RG&E takes HEAP money, yet still leaves children and families in the cold!”

This is the same company that sent an average of 45,000 illegal shut off notices A MONTH during the COVID-19 shutoff moratorium between Mar 2020 to Dec 2021 - just to scare people into paying, even though they got that money back from NY State. 

Dan Maloney, President of UAW 1097 commented: 
“Ratepayers already pay for all of RG&E’s operating costs, plus now $122 million on top of that in profit. Included in that is money for them to lobby politicians to block our community from making our own decisions. Recently, they’ve also gotten millions in taxpayer money on top of that in addition. They already charge us too much that leaves Rochester for Spain, taxpayers shouldn’t be paying them extra to do their job.” 

Tracey Harrision, Vice President of 1199 SEIU-UHWE commented:
“RG&E should not be shutting off our neighbors when they’re increasing rates, when we pay millions in profit and millions more in taxpayer money on top of that. Luckily, the City reserved money that can be used for a public utility study, and Mayoral candidates and all City council candidates support moving forward with a study. The hold up for some is that the County is not on board yet, but the City is entirely capable to move forward. Someone needs to stand with the community to ensure a non-biased professional study is completed to bring accountability and facts to the region.” 

NY state has relatively few protections against shut offs, even in the winter, but evidenced by stories of people present, RG&E seems to be breaking the few regulations there are, and endangering lives in our community. 

Justine Harris, single mother of 4 shared: "I was shut off by RG&E in September along with 9 other houses on my block - for a $6,000 estimated bill from a previous apartment years ago that can't be accurate. My son is disabled and we've had to live in hotels while we were shut off for 4 months. I'm fighting so hard and RG&E is making it impossible to survive in this City." 

Amina L., a 26 year old MCC student, who’s renting an apartment for the first time this year and came home from a 12 hour shift to find that: “RG&E shut off my and at least 7 units in my building at the same time in November and alerted us only by notes on our door! Our bill was paid by autopay, they just didn't process it on their end.”  

Sheril, a nonprofit human resources professional and single mom, shared: 
“In August, after a smart meter was installed, I received an overcharge bill which was almost three times my highest ever bill. While disputing the charges, my services were disconnected even though the only bill owed was the one being queried. During numerous back and forth they’d agreed there was a mistake, then later rescinded and forced me to get a payment plan to get the power on again.”

Kristina Dinino-Jeffords, Owner of Mad Hatter and ROC Cinema shared: 
“As a dedicated Rochester business owner, I’ve been a victim of RGE’s billing issues and shutoffs. The Mad Hatter Restaurant’s power was shut off by RG&E after an incorrect bill totalling $24,000 and ROC Cinema had an incorrect bill that was auto deducted from our bank account in the amount of $11,000. They deprived me of conducting my business, loss of sales, unnecessary stress and significantly altered my businesses cash flow due to the massive withdrawal.”

A local business owner wanted to comment anonymously: 
“I own a local business downtown. RG&E did not send us a bill from November 2023 to June of 2024. When we finally received the bill for 7 months of service we were only given 30 days to pay it back. When we could not immediately afford the several thousand dollar bill, they threatened shut off. They are making it impossible to sustain a small business.”

“Rochester can’t afford RG&E any more. Our people are suffering, who will step up and help?” asked Luis Torres, Metro Justice Vice President. 

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Additional Context: 

Rochester’s energy burden (the proportion of income for energy) is third highest in the country, with 29% of all homes, or 44% of Black and Latino homes, paying between 6-25% of their total income on energy. An updated report from ACEEE shows that a quarter of low income households in Rochester pay 21% or more of their income to RG&E. 

The City of Rochester has twice reserved funding for a public utility study, in June of 2023 and 2024. However the City has not made progress moving forward with commissioning a study. The County voted down funding for a public utility study in April 2024, when 2 Democrats sided with the Republican caucus to block it. 

Bob Duffy, the President & CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, is paid over $240,000 a year to sit on RG&E’s parent company (Avangrid)’s board. RG&E is owned by Avangrid, which is owned by Iberdrola, the 2nd largest utility company in the world.  

Sources and Further Context: 

• Detailed shut off numbers, further graphics and sources can be found here
  
  
• Profits shown in table below (profits = balance for common)

• Utility shutoff regulations (Source):
  
  
• Utility shutoff process
  • A termination may occur if you receive notice in writing from the utility that it plans to shut off your service, and has waited 15 days to allow you an opportunity to pay the overdue bill or make a payment agreement on the overdue amount.
• Between November 1 and April 15, if your service is heat-related, you will be given at least 30 days notice of the possible shutoff of your service.
  • If you have not paid a bill, payment agreement installment or deposit payment, your utility must send you a Final Termination Notice before it can turn off your service.  This notice can be sent 20 days after the date payment was due. After the notice has been sent to you, the utility must allow 15 days for you to resolve the problem before it can shut off your service.
  • Utilities can shut off your service only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Monday through Thursday.
• If you live in an apartment building or a two-family house and your landlord fails to pay the utility bill for the building, your utility has to notify you of the landlord's non-payment.
• When Your Service Cannot Be Shut Off
  • a Final Termination Notice has not been sent to you;
  • the amount owed was billed and due more than a year ago, and because of no fault of yours, your utility did not begin termination procedures;a doctor certifies to your utility that there is a medical emergency;
  • you have a billing dispute filed with your utility or the PSC concerning the amount owed and you pay the portion of the bill that is not in dispute;
  • you make full payment of the amount owed when your utility comes to shut off service;
  • you make a payment agreement with your utility which covers the amount owed (see Deferred Payment Agreements below).
  • your service cannot be shut off for non-payment on a public holiday, the day before a holiday, the two-week period which includes Christmas and New Year's Day, or on a day before your utility business office closed. (Source)
• Cold weather protections:  During the cold weather period of November 1 to April 15, your utility has to make special efforts to determine if disconnection of your heat-related service will cause a problem to your health and safety. It will attempt to contact you or another adult at your home by phone or in person at least three days before the scheduled service shutoff, and again the day of the service shutoff, to determine whether shutting off your heat-related service could cause serious harm to the health or safety of any resident in your home. If the utility finds that harm might result, it must notify the local Department of Social Services, which will then conduct its own investigation. Meanwhile your utility cannot shut off your service for another 15 business days.

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a utility shut-off moratorium starting on March 13, 2020 (Source) extending to 180 days after the COVID-19 state of emergency expires. The original moratorium was supposed to end on March 31, 2021  (Source), but this was later extended to December 31, 2021 (Source and Source).

However RG&E sent shut off notices illegally during the COVID-19 shut off moratorium between March 2020 to Dec 2021. On average, they were sending 45,000 letters per month during this period (Source in 2nd tab).