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Philadelphia Residents Get Reconnect Help

A $500,000 emergency grant will help reconnect Philadelphia low-income natural gas customers whose service had been shut-off. The money comes from a state grant announced the last week of December by two state senators and Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell.

The majority of the funding will go to low-income customers of Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), who are among the state’s poorest. It will be distributed through 13 Neighborhood Energy Centers – non-profit organizations that focus on the energy needs of low and moderate income people in Philadelphia. A small portion of the grant money will fund the organizations’ outreach to low-income households and administrative costs.

After last winter, about 35,000 PGW customers had their service disconnected because of overdue bills. As of late December about 9,000 were without service and will be helped by the state funding.  Many of those without service had outstanding bills averaging $1,200 and were unable to cover the $123 fee for reconnecting their service. 

PGW recently submitted to state regulators a request for an annual increase of $100 million in its base rate, its largest request ever.

Source: Governor’s Office, newspapers

Page Last Updated: January 27, 2010