Central Hudson customers expressed concerns over the billing practices and rising costs of services over the past year during a public forum held by members of the Central Hudson Consumer Outreach Group at the Newburgh Town Hall on Thursday, March 30. Residents had the opportunity to sit down with Central Hudson representatives to discuss their bills and to address any additional concerns.

Central Hudson received heavy criticism from both the community and elected officials after rolling out a new digital billing system that led to inaccurate billing totals with excessive charges during the previous year. The New York State Department of Public Service [DPS] released an investigative report in Mid-December that investigated the practices of the company that also revealed inadequate company training, limited staffing and lack of readiness by the staff with the software as the program rolled out to the public.

“We’ve never addressed the public in forum like this before. I know a lot of people are here,” said Lisa Kopp, Supervisor of the Consumer Outreach Group. “Customers don’t like estimates. That’s one of the top complaints that we receive.”

Discussing meter readings, according to the Home Energy Fair Practices Act and New York State guidelines, meter readings for Central Hudson are collected every other month. The interim month, according to Central Hudson, is an estimated read and was based on prior year’s usage. Customers do have the option of submitting their own meter readings at www.cenhud.com or through the Central Hudson Mobile App which is available on the Apple and Google Play stores. Central Hudson clarified to the gathered public that the earliest day a customer can submit their meter reading was two calendar days prior, however no later than noon, on the scheduled meter reading date. Customers can find their next meter reading date in their individual bill summary section or their account under the account details section.

In order to assist those customers with payments, several programs are available at mybenefits.ny.gov. The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is a federally funded program that assists low-income customers with heating and cooling costs and offers emergency assistance with heating equipment repairs and cleaning and tuning for the customer. The Low Income Bill Discount Program is offered if customers are provided heat through an alternate source and receive other assistance.

Several grants, according to Central Hudson, are available to customers to apply for. The Good Neighbor Fund is a grant for customers who have exhausted their assistance resources. The grant is two times the average monthly bill but does not exceed the amount of $325 according to Central Hudson. A Veterans’s Grant is eligible for retired service members and their families who may be experiencing financial hardship. Two $200 per calendar year are available to eligible customers.

Other programs that Central Hudson made the public aware of were the Life Support Equipment Program, which is for eligible customers who require electricity for the operation of life-sustaining equipment and requires yearly certification, the Help During Hospitalization program, which offers a 30-day extension to customer in the case of a household member who had an extended hospital stay, and the Special Protections program, which is offered for any household member who is blind, disabled or elderly.

In the case of natural gas leak, which is odorless and colorless, Central Hudson recommended that customers stop what they are doing and head outside of their home and contact the gas odor hotline or call 911.

For further assistance, Central Hudson customers can contact their customer service department at (845) 452-2700 or (800) 527-2714. The office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They can also be reached by fax at (845) 486-5658. Customers can also contact Central Hudson via email and live chat is available to them. Online self service is available at CentralHudson.com. The natural gas odor hotline is (800) 942-8274 or 911, and the consumer outreach email is consumeroutreach@cenhud.com.

“We were glad to come out at the invitation of the Town of Newburgh and meet with local residents who had questions about their electricity and natural gas bills. We brought eight to 10 customer service representatives from Central Hudson to meet directly with our customers,” said Jerry Nappi, Public Affairs Director for Central Hudson. “I think it was a great experience for us to be out and help customers face to face. Obviously, we do a lot of work over the phones and through email. So anytime our representatives can get out in the public and help customers where they are, that’s a positive.”

Nappi said the company’s billing system was working well and there would be few issues going forward. Central Hudson was still working on addressing any problems in the past through customer outreach and communication. Nappi further clarified that Central Hudson purchases natural gas and electricity and the company does not mark up or increase the prices of these resources. As stated, Central Hudson will look to submit a new rate plan to the state this year.

“Just wanted to really thank Central Hudson for coming here today for the outreach,” said Town Supervisor Gil Piaquadio. “Many people are concerned about their billing. I know there’s a lot of confusion between the cost of electric and your adjustment at the end of your budget period, but I think they’re trying their [Central Hudson] best to work it out. One thing I do want to add is that Central Hudson employees in general, I have to give them a top rating as far as the linemen and everyone else that works for the company. Very responsive in power failures and disasters and hopefully this billing situation can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.”

Councilman Scott Manley and Councilman Anthony LoBiondo also concurred with Piaquadio’s sentiments.

“Really happy that the town [of Newburgh] could provide this for Central Hudson and our residents to sit down and actually get some facts and sit face to face with the customer service reps,” said Manley. “We hear so many people waiting two or three hours on the phone and getting frustrated. We have plenty of people here where they can sit down, look at them [Central Hudson representatives] face to face and have everything explained to them and hopefully with a good outcome, but at least they can really talk to people and not have to worry about getting disconnected and waiting on the phone.”

“Very happy and pleased that the town can provide a forum during a time in which people can actually make it during the day,” said LoBiondo. “From the turnout, it seems like a lot of people are taking advantage of the opportunity to come to our town and listen to what’s being said. And hopefully they’ll get some answers.”

However, customers Rose Lisi and Pat Fayo had more questions for Central Hudson and will look to see what they can do on their end to address their individual concerns.

“People speaking out of order, no questions really answered. As far as I’m concerned, there was no questions answered. They [Central Hudson] were asking about individual bills, not about charges on the bills. That was my whole reason for coming,” said Fayo. “I thought this was going to be a forum where they would explain the bill. It could have been the people’s fault, maybe not Central Hudson, because the people just kept talking out of turn.”

“My feeling was they have a plan, which he [a Central Hudson representative] said there’s a plan and when I work in committees before, they usually bring a plan to the public, in order to move the plan forward,” said Lisi. “We asked for the plan and they told us to go online.”

As the afternoon continued, customers continued to ask questions about their billing or referred to their own situations in terms of billing so as to seek any additional information and answers. Names of customers were regularly added to a growing list that was being circulated.