With Spiraling Prices Customers Finding Creative Ways To Use Less Energy

When temperatures drop, Joyce Atkins stops using more than half of her modest Abingdon home just to keep utility costs down.

Every year, she hangs her “special” red-and-black quilt across the doorway between her living room and the hallway leading to her kitchen, closes the doors of three unused bedrooms and a drafty dining room, then shuts the heating vents in her kitchen.

“I shut off all my rooms except just the ones I use. I keep the bedrooms shut off and sleep on that half-bed there in the hall to keep from heating up the bedroom,” Atkins said of the house she’s lived in since 1965. “I’ve always had to do that, trying to save as much as possible.”

She also supplements heat from an oil furnace in the basement with a trio of portable electric heaters that are “handy” for knocking off the chill.

Using those heaters – and any other electricity – is about to get substantially pricier for Atkins and every other Southwest Virginia customer of Appalachian Power. The company is about to impose an average 37 percent rate increase – the majority of which is expected to go into place this month.

Atkins, however, will get some help defraying this year’s utility bills.

A crew from People Incorporated of Southwest Virginia is scheduled to arrive Monday to install insulation, repair leaking ductwork and try to seal off some drafty areas, said Fred Gross, who manages the energy program for the Abingdon-based nonprofit organization.

“We’ll seal the walls in the basement and attic, add insulation to the attic and seal the joints in the ductwork. She’s losing almost 50 percent of her heat down in the basement,” Gross said.

The three days worth of work – which would cost most folks about $2,500 – is expected to recapture about half of the heat loss and reduce her utility bills, Gross said.

Across the region, fall’s arrival means finding creative ways to use less energy – especially in the wake of spiraling prices.

Atkins is one of the lucky ones. 

Energy audits, insulation and other fixes are performed at no charge for those who qualify in the program’s service area of Bristol, Va., Washington and Buchanan counties, Executive Director Rob Goldsmith said. The agency typically assists about 100 households per year.

A financial helping hand

While the heating season is just arriving in the Mountain Empire, demand for financial help – the most common type of assistance – is growing already, said Maj. Peggy Mullins of the Bristol Salvation Army.

“September was a nightmare. In one week, we paid out three times the money we allotted [for the month],” Mullins said.

The chapter serves both Bristols, a portion of Washington County, Va., and parts of Sullivan and Johnson counties in Tennessee.

During the past two years, the Salvation Army has doled out more than $98,000 just to help about 2,600 people pay electric bills, Mullins said.

The total includes a combination of federal and local contributions, plus the “Help Your Neighbor” programs run by both Bristol Tennessee Essential Services and Bristol Virginia Utilities. It doesn’t include funds used to help pay other types of utility bills.

Administered by the United Way of Bristol and the Salvation Army, which determines eligibility, both BTES and BVU match customer contributions. Because it is a winter program, however, it doesn’t address summer cooling costs.

Through Help Your Neighbor, more than $28,000 has been used to help 228 households in Bristol, Va., during the past two years. In Bristol, Tenn., about 200 households received about $21,000 during the same period.

“The most we’ve had contributed in a single year was $7,800,” BVU President Wes Rosenbalm said. “We encourage our customers, who can afford to spare a little bit, to help, because we will put in up to $10,000. That’s $20,000 that can help those in our community. That money is only used to pay electric bills, not water, sewer or OptiNet.”

BTES President Mike Browder said the utility would consider providing additional assistance.

“Our board has always matched every dollar, but they’ve set a maximum. If donations ever exceeded that maximum, I’m sure the board would review it,” Browder said.

The neighbor assistance program typically runs from December through March, but could begin earlier, according to Lisa Cofer, executive director of the United Way.

“If the need becomes evident before December, and we see the number of calls for assistance increasing, we’ll talk to BTES and BVU about beginning it sooner,” Cofer said. “Unfortunately, the way the economy is, my fear is electric bills and gas bills aren’t going to be the only needs people have.”

The tough economic conditions likely will put an even greater strain on the area’s network of health and human service agencies, Cofer said.

“I expect there will be more need for Help Your Neighbor this year than ever before,” Cofer said.

Qualifying for help

Besides a past-due electric bill, applicants for programs through the Salvation Army must provide evidence of all current loans, utilities, rent or house payment, child care and other expenses, Mullins said. Help is limited to once in a 12-month period.

“We don’t require a shut-off notice. We want people to come to us before they get a shut-off notice. If they wait, their power could be cut off while they’re here talking to us and that’s more expense to get it back on,” Mullins said.

A separate Salvation Army program funded by donations from local churches, civic groups and individuals, operates year-round to assist people with electric bills. During the past two years, that has accounted for about $25,000 in assistance to more than 800 people, Mullins said.

Another 800 Tennessee residents have received about $25,000 in help through a separate program funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, FEMA funds can’t be used to pay power bills in Virginia, Mullins said.

Everyone who receives assistance is required to provide the same types of financial information and go through a qualifying process, Mullins said.
Another source of help for lower income power customers in Sullivan County – including the city of Bristol, Tenn. – is the Upper East Tennessee Human Development Agency.

Already, however, that agency has received more than 7,200 applications from its eight-county service area for the $2 million in available energy assistance, Program Director Roger Smith said.

“Last year, the program served about 4,000 households,” Smith said, adding that the qualifying system gives some preference to the elderly, disabled and people with children. “We’ve seen a slight increase [in applicants], but not much of one.”

As much as $600 is dispensed as a one-time payment to the electric or natural gas provider, or for the delivery of wood, coal, oil or propane, Smith said.

The once-a-year assistance is only available for individuals whose monthly income is $1,083.33 or less, Smith said.

Since July, the agency has already dispersed all of the $90,000 it had allocated to help those with a utility bill crisis, Smith said.

“But people who are about to be shut off should contact their neighborhood service center,” Smith said.

Other sources

Bristol Faith in Action, an assistance organization partially funded by area churches, provides financial help with electric bills every six months, but requires a notice that shut-off is imminent, said Development Director Cindy Looney.

During the past fiscal year, the agency provided more than $64,000 in utility assistance – especially electric payments and deposits – to clients in both Bristols and portions of adjoining counties on both sides of the state line.

“Our utility assistance dollars were up 15 percent during the past three months and our number of clients is definitely rising,” Looney said.

“We try to help the best we can. We normally don’t pay the whole bill, but ask how can you contribute,” Looney said. “Our goal is to help promote self-sufficiency. But the needs are so much greater than the dollars available.”

In Abingdon, Highlands Fellowship Church also provides some financial help to people who are behind in paying electric bills, Communications Director Tracie Coppedge said.

“We usually see a spike in the winter months. You have to have heat, but in the summer you can turn the air conditioning off,” Coppedge said. “The people we provide assistance to are concerned about the increases and talk about it, but so far we haven’t seen the impact.”

The church typically assists 15-20 people each month with utility bills, Coppedge said.

Don’t wait to communicate

Officials at both BVU and BTES said customers who encounter problems or can’t pay their bills shouldn’t wait until the last minute to communicate.

“People need to come in and let us know. We will work with customers to make a payment arrangement – if they stay current,” Rosenbalm said. “Nobody prospers if we have to cut off service.”

On both sides of town, turning off the power happens after customers are two months behind and haven’t made an attempt to communicate with the electric company.

“You can’t wait until you get behind to do something. It’s easier to fix something before it happens,” Browder said. “People who get behind have a hard time digging back out.”

BTES also is willing to work with customers, but that is largely governed by their past credit history.

“We’re ready and willing to help people – and most people will do what they say. But don’t make [payment] agreements with us and not do what you say you’re going to,” Browder warned.

For some people, making that initial call may be the most difficult part, Mullins said.

“I think people are really embarrassed or feel guilty when they can’t pay their bills,” Mullins said. “Instead of communicating with the utility, they shut up and don’t say anything. Sure, there are deadbeats, but I think a lot of people just don’t know how to manage their money.”

One way to avoid higher winter heating costs is to use level billing, where customers pay an averaged amount each month.

“A huge number of our customers do that,” Browder said. “But we have some that absolutely don’t want to a pay a bill for $100 when they only use $40 in electricity. But then, when they use $200, they still only pay $100.”

Rosenbalm said an increasing number of BVU customers are also opting for level billing.

“We urge people to use the level or equalized billing,” Mullins said, because it helps reduce surprisingly high bills. “That helps people handle paying their electric, because it stays the same. People budget for their rent because it stays the same. A lot of people don’t know. People really need to be educated.”

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