In one of the nation’s coronavirus hot spots and amid the hottest months of the year, Orlando’s utility has resumed disconnecting service to customers unable to pay their power and water bills.
Orlando Utilities Commission, after considering widespread pleas to continue a moratorium on disconnections, expected to cut off service to about 100 customers Tuesday and about 500 a day through the rest of the week.
OUC’s general manager, Clint Bullock, said the resumption of disconnecting customers will help motivate them to apply for financial assistance available from the utility.
“No doubt a month from now, we will see a significant increase in numbers,” Bullock said, speaking during a utility board meeting Tuesday. “We did all of the early messaging, but without understanding there is going to be a disconnect, people weren’t taking action.”
The utility agreed not to disconnect a customer who fills out an application for financial assistance.
Providing power and water to about 250,000 customers, OUC suspended disconnections in March as the COVID-19 pandemic choked the region’s economy and triggered the state’s worst unemployment levels.
Prior to the pandemic, the municipally owned utility had cut power or water at a rate of about 5,000 customers a week.
More than 50 groups and many individuals had called on OUC to continue the moratorium until Central Florida shows significant recovery from the pandemic and recession.
“I am deeply concerned about this decision from Orlando’s hometown utility commission board due to the ongoing public health and economic hardships many Central Florida families continue to face from the global COVID-19 crisis,” state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando said in a letter to OUC board members.
On Tuesday, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national environmental group, warned that people without air conditioning during soaring summer temperatures are likely to seek relief in public places and worsen the spread of the coronavirus.
Other municipal utilities have resumed disconnection, including KUA of Kissimmee and Winter Park’s utility, which anticipates cutting service to about 30 customers a day this week.
Disconnections have not been resumed by the region’s largest power provider, Duke Energy, or by the state’s largest electric utility, Florida Power & Light Co.
During the OUC board meeting Tuesday, several community, health and environment advocacy leaders decried the resumption of disconnections as inhumane.
“So why are we here in the middle of a pandemic with record-breaking numbers of new COVID-19 infections and this group is considering turning off utilities for thousands of people people who lost their jobs,” said Stephanie Porta, executive director of Organize Florida. “Where is your compassion?”
Other speakers noted that OUC’s financial assistance, managed in part by United Way, is difficult to apply for. That prompted a concession from the OUC board, which agreed that a customer’s application for assistance will be sufficient to prevent a disconnection. Information for help is at ouc.com/assistance
“I would like our approach to be to really hold the hand of any customer we are going to send a notice to,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, an OUC board member. “Our goal ought to be to have nobody disconnected.”
kspear@orlandosentinel.com