With a change to greener energy, Central Hudson’s billing system needed to be improved, which left customers with large bills before the holiday season.

Central Hudson’s billing system was updated in September to accommodate community solar programs, but before that some solar customers were not billed at all. Now those mounting charges are coming due in one massive bill right at the holidays. 

Some Central Hudson customers received an automated call in early December from Central Hudson informing them that the electric and gas company did not send them a utility bill in over a month due to its new billing system, which was put in place to begin accommodating solar energy accounts.

Residents who have solar rooftops or are part of a community solar program sometimes receive monthly statements that credit instead of charging their accounts, depending on how much energy is created versus used. This complicated new way of billing requires a new invoicing system, whose implementation has left many customers uncertain about what they actually owe.

“Some of the challenges we experienced when switching over were expected,” said Joe Jenkins, Central Hudson’s Associate Director of Media Relations. “We had technical issues of billing them correctly.”

Prior to the system change, Central Hudson was using a legacy system from the 1980s. With the transition to a cleaner energy system and different energy options now available, the old billing system could not keep up as is.

“Customers with more complex bills on our old system were being billed manually,” said Jenkins. “The new system … is more nimble and can accommodate complex bills that people have now, and that we anticipate will only get more complex as this clean energy transition progresses.”

Newburgh resident Alexandra Church had rooftop solar installed in the spring. The last step in her installation was for Central Hudson to add a new meter that goes backwards since her household was helping make energy. Since the spring, she hasn’t received an electric or gas bill from the company.

“At first, it’s kind of fun. But then you realize the meters are still counting and this is going to catch up with me,” said Church. “I was going to end up with a $1,500 gas and electric bill when this comes due. It’s hard for anyone to come up with that much money quickly.”

She reached out to Central Hudson over the summer but faced lengthy wait times of more than an hour until, frustrated, she’d hang up. The utility company’s callback option also did not work, she said.

“After you’ve punched so many numbers in to get to the right person, and be on hold for hours, and you get to wits end and decide to try a callback, you press the number and it hangs up,” said Church.

Central Hudson’s offices, located in Poughkeepsie, have been closed since the start of the pandemic, so customers can’t receive assistance in person either.

Jenkins said Central Hudson is working to address long wait times, including doubling call center staffing, extending call hours, and using social media to communicate with customers.

“We understand it’s not acceptable for our customers to have to wait for an hour or more to address a utility bill,” said Jenkins. “We’re doing everything in our power to get our service back to an acceptable level.”

Eventually, Church — who said she never got a letter from Central Hudson — connected by phone with the utility, who explained to her the billing issue at hand for those using solar.

Central Hudson offered Church a no-interest payment plan with no late fees; when Church heard other residents were experiencing similar issues, she contacted State Senator James Skoufis.

“When I found out that Central Hudson had mistakenly not been billing certain customers for more than half the year and planned to slam them with massive, outrageous bills heading into the holidays, my team and I immediately challenged Central Hudson on this egregious error,” said Skoufis in email.

In Church’s case, she was told she had a meter that couldn’t be read, which is why she wasn’t being billed. However, a utility worker who was sent to her house in December said the meter was not the issue.

As her energy bill mounts, Church is still awaiting an answer from the utility company as to why she has not received a bill.

Jenkins said the bills are being released to affected customers now.

“We’re helping them out as much as we can, even on an individual basis to make sure we get everything settled correctly,” said Jenkins.

Aside from the automated calls, affected customers should receive something in the mail regarding next steps as well.

“This isn’t the first time my constituents have been negatively impacted by changes to Central Hudson’s operations,” said Skoufis in an email. “Impending winter weather paired with continued financial strain in our local communities adds even more weight to Central Hudson’s responsibility to the Hudson Valley residents it serves.”

Aside from Central Hudson’s new billing system, heating costs were expected to be higher than usual this season nationwide.

“It was forecasted coming into the season,” said Jenkins. “It’s the same supply chain woes we’ve seen in other industries. There is a very high global demand for natural gas resources, and as a result, it has driven up the price of natural gas here.”

While there was a spike in previous months that showed around a 30 percent increase on natural gas bills for a typical customer, Jenkins said in the coming months, there could be a dip in that price.

“We’re seeing a downward trend in cost right now, but because it’s market based, an extended cold snap that drives up demand could negatively impact that downward trend,” said Jenkins. “Depending on how long the cold snap goes for, it could be a short blip, or it could move the trend line up again.”

Considering utility bill irregularities and fluctuations on a month-to-month basis, State Senator Michelle Hinchey introduced new legislation that would protect residents from unfair billing. The legislation, announced at at a press conference on Dec. 14, permits a utility to provide estimated billing for customers for no more than three billing cycles per calendar year, which is down from six.

“[Estimated billing] is incredibly unfair to customers and has a particularly negative impact on lower-income New Yorkers who need to be able to adequately budget each month to meet their basic needs,” said Hinchey in a press release.

According to a press release, residents in Hinchey's district, which includes some of Ulster and Greene counties, have seen their bills increase hundreds of dollars because of estimated utility readings.

If passed, the legislation would direct the Public Service Commission to create a best practices estimation formula as an industry standard by Nov. 1 of next year. This would then be used instead and protect payers by mitigating excessive fluctuation in month-to-month bills.

“If you’re a single parent or a senior on a fixed income, you should never have to choose between putting food on the table or keeping the heat on just because your utility company decided to overestimate your utility bill by hundreds of dollars more than expected that month,” said Hinchey in a press release. “That’s exactly what’s happening to residents in my district.”

— Catskills vacation spots say no to pot dispensaries

— Meet the developer revitalizing Hudson Valley's industrial sites

— New $125 million program offers guaranteed income for NY artists

— Cop charged with protecting prostitution ring in exchange for sex

Don’t miss a headline. Sign up for the Hudson Valley 5 newsletter.

Cloey Callahan is a lifelong Hudson Valley resident who was born and raised in Brewster, lived in New Paltz for four years while she attended college, and now resides in Newburgh on Liberty Street. On a sunny day, she strolls through Newburgh enjoying the 19th-century architecture on her way to the Hudson River waterfront. You can reach her at cloey.callahan@hearst.com to say hi or with pitches.