State regulators on Thursday cleared natural gas company Summit Utilities of any rules violations and approved its request to resume shutoffs and late charges on delinquent accounts starting in September.
Billing mistakes and other problems after Summit took over operations from CenterPoint Energy in the wake of a $2.15 billion cash acquisition in 2022 had led the Arkansas Public Service Commission to ban shutoffs and late fees earlier this year. The utility, of Centennial, Colorado, serves 425,000 meters in Arkansas, and had voluntarily suspended those collection procedures in November.
The PSC ruling allows Summit to resume disconnections beginning Sept. 15 and to start issuing late notices on Sept. 10. Delinquent customers who make arrangements with the utility will be given at least 18 months to pay off their debts, the PSC ruled.
The company said it had worked through problems with the billing system in the CenterPoint transition, which led to thousands of complaints to the PSC and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office.
This month, the PSC and attorney general’s office agreed that Summit had largely resolved the issue and had broken no regulatory rules.
In a statement, Summit Chief Customer Officer Fred Kirkwood said the company would do all it can to help customers having trouble paying their gas bills. “We encourage those with outstanding balances to contact our customer service representatives as soon as possible to make payment arrangements, so we do not have to disconnect their service.” He noted that Summit has hired more than 75 customer service representatives since last year, and that they will be able to help customers understand options for bringing their accounts current.
Under PSC orders, Summit will communicate with customers through mail, email, its website summitutilities.com and on social media.
PSC filings show that 47,000 residential and commercial accounts could be on Summit’s shutoff list, and that the average past-due amount for all accounts is $647.
“Eligible customers can sign up for a payment plan before the close of business on the last day to pay printed on their disconnection notice,” the utility said in a news release.
In a statement, Griffin said he thought Summit’s announced plans to resume regular collection procedures in July was premature, and that the order on Thursday “goes a long way to ensure that customers have a reasonable opportunity to pay off properly billed amounts if they have fallen behind as a result of Summit’s billing problems.
Summit’s acquisition of CenterPoint multiplied its customer base fivefold. It bought Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp. of Fort Smith in 2017 from the Witt Stephens family, which had owned it for seven decades. The value of that deal was not revealed.
Overall, Summit and its subsidiary companies serve about 625,000 customers and operate more than 23,400 miles of pipeline in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.â¯Ã¢¯ Its companies are Arkansas Oklahoma Gas, Colorado Natural Gas, Summit Natural Gas of Maine, Summit Natural Gas of Missouri, Summit Utilities Arkansas, and Summit Utilities Oklahoma.
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