National Grid sends nearly 100,000 termination notices a month to customers with overdue bills

Tim Knauss

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - National Grid sends roughly twice as many service termination notices to Upstate customers with overdue bills as the utility sent before the recession hit in 2008, an indication that many customers are still struggling to make ends meet.

The trend is similar at other New York utilities, according to data compiled by Public Utility Law Project, an advocacy group for low-income utility customers.

"A lot of people have not come out of the recession,'' said Gerald Norlander, executive director. "We have an economic indicator here. For a significant part of the population, times are tough.''

The data was released today by AARP, which is lobbying for the creation of a utility consumer advocate office to represent residential customers in rate cases.

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