Beginning today, thousands of Rhode Islanders are facing the imminent shutoff of their gas or electricity service because they didn’t –– or couldn’t –– pay their bills.

State regulations prohibit utility companies from shutting off the service of certain low-income households during the winter months. That moratorium begins Nov. 1 and usually ends April 15. But this year, National Grid voluntarily agreed to extend it through yesterday.

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Full report . . .

Community advocates say that with continued high energy prices, a sagging economy and virtually no heating assistance from the state, the number of utility shutoffs is likely to set a record this year.

The number of shutoffs last year set an all-time record. Utility companies turned off service to a total of 30,144 households, according to state regulators, the highest number ever recorded.

“Without a solution, the 30,144 shutoffs last year are going to skyrocket this year,” said Julie Silvia, a spokeswoman for the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket. The agency advocates for the interests of low-income families. She predicts that shutoffs could reach 35,000 this year.

Some numbers that National Grid filed with state regulators last month suggest that this will indeed be another difficult year for many. For the first three months of 2008, the utility company sent out 124,896 termination notices to its gas and electricity customers in Rhode Island. That is about 46 percent more than the company sent out for the first three months of last year.

National Grid is the state’s dominant utility company, providing service to 245,000 natural-gas customers and 477,000 electricity customers in Rhode Island.

David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid, said a termination notice is automatically sent to a customer when a bill is over 30 days past due. Only a small fraction of customers who are sent these termination notices end up losing gas or electricity service, he said, as the vast majority of customers pay their bill and avoid shutoffs.

But there are those who cannot afford to pay their bills, and many have begun to worry about how they’ll get along without gas or electricity, said Silvia.

“These phones are ringing off the hook,” she said. Silvia criticized National Grid for sending out termination notices during the winter months, even though many customers were protected from a shutoff by state regulations.

“We’ve been having many calls through the winter moratorium where people are petrified they are getting terminated.”

“They have gone into debt by borrowing money –– literally going without food or medicine” to pay their utility bills, she said. “This is typical.”

The center said it is planning an “action” today at the offices of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers in Warwick. The DPUC is the agency that is charged with making sure the utility companies follow state regulations regarding shutoffs. People who are facing a shutoff may appeal by asking the DPUC for a hearing to present their circumstances. Silvia said that the George Wiley Center will bring several people to the DPUC who want to request a hearing to try to delay a pending shutoff.

Utility costs have put a strain on family budgets. A typical gas customer that uses 922 therms of gas annually will pay $1,483 for heat this year, up 33 percent from 2003. A typical electricity customer who uses 6,000 kilowatt-hours annually will pay $921 this year, up 34 percent from 2003.

Households that use oil for heat have had it worse. A family that used 666 gallons of oil (the equivalent of 922 therms) paid $2,308 for heat this winter, 40 percent more than they paid the previous winter, and 118 percent more than the 2002-2003 heating season, according to calculations by The Journal, using heating oil prices collected by the state Office of Energy Resources.

The moratorium that ended yesterday protects customers who are elderly, handicapped, seriously ill, receiving unemployment compensation, receiving federal heating assistance or qualify as a financial hardship, according to state rules. The state defines a financial-hardship customer as one having an income at or below 75 percent of the Rhode Island median income. The median income for a family of four last year was $72,706, according to the Census Bureau. That would make the income cutoff $54,529.

Despite the increase in energy rates, less money was available for heating assistance this winter. The state received a total of about $18 million from the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, compared with $19.5 million the previous winter, according to the state Office of Energy Resources.

A $15-million state-sponsored heating-assistance program, established by a 2006 law, was supposed to begin last summer, but it never got off the ground. The General Assembly and Governor Carcieri, facing a huge budget shortfall, didn’t allocate any money to finance it.

Two legislators plan to introduce another bill that would establish a different heating-assistance program that would provide help to low-income customers, based on their income.

According to a draft copy of the bill, the Home Energy Rate Affordability Act would provide aid to households at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, the income threshold is $31,800, according to Silvia of the George Wiley Center.

It would also erase past-due balances if a participating customer stays current with their utility bills for three years.

The program would be paid for by a monthly surcharge of $1.40 on the bills of residential customers. Commercial customers would pay $13 a month, and large industrial customers would pay $250 a month.

The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston, and Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.Fast facts

•In the first three months of this year, National Grid sent out 124,896 termination notices to its gas and electricity customers, 46 percent more than the same period last year.

•A typical electricity customer will pay $921 this year, up 5.4 percent from last year, and up 34 percent from 2003.

•A typical natural gas customer will pay $1,483 this year, down 1 percent from last year, but up 33 percent from 2003.

Source: Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, National Grid, Journal calculations.

tbarmann@projo.com