LCO No. 4234 1 of 3
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 992
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 4234
Referred to Committee on ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduced by:
(ET)
AN ACT CONCERNING UT ILITY COMPANY TEXT MESSAGE
COMMUNICATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2021) Notwithstanding any 1
provision of the general statutes, if an electric distribution, gas, 2
telephone or water company, as those terms are defined in section 16-1 3
of the general statutes, sends any form of written communication to a 4
customer, said company shall also send such communication by text 5
message to the phone number of the most recent mobile telephone, as 6
defined in section 14-296aa of the general statutes, provided by such 7
customer unless such customer requests otherwise. Each electric 8
distribution, gas, telephone or water company shall use said company's 9
best efforts to obtain current phone numbers from each customer. 10
Sec. 2. Subsection (a) of section 16-262d of the general statutes is 11
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 12
2021): 13
(a) No electric distribution, gas, telephone or water company, no 14
electric supplier and no municipal utility furnishing electric, gas or 15 Raised Bill No. 992
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water service may terminate such service to a residential dwelling on 16
account of nonpayment of a delinquent account unless such company, 17
electric supplier or municipal utility first gives notice of such 18
delinquency and impending termination by text message sent to the 19
phone number of the most recent mobile telephone, as defined in section 20
14-296aa, provided by the customer unless such customer requests 21
otherwise and by first class mail addressed to the customer to which 22
such service is billed, at least thirteen calendar days prior to the 23
proposed termination, except that if an electric distribution or gas 24
company, electric supplier or municipal utility furnishing electric or gas 25
service has issued a notice under this subsection but has not terminated 26
service prior to issuing a new bill to the customer, such company, 27
electric supplier or municipal utility may terminate such service only 28
after mailing the customer an additional notice of the impending 29
termination, addressed to the customer to which such service is billed 30
either (1) by first class mail at least thirteen calendar days prior to the 31
proposed termination, or (2) by certified mail, at least seven calendar 32
days prior to the proposed termination. In the event that multiple dates 33
of proposed termination are provided to a customer, no such company, 34
electric supplier or municipal utility shall terminate service prior to the 35
latest of such dates. For purposes of this subsection, the thirteen-day 36
periods and seven-day period shall commence on the date such notice 37
is mailed. If such company, electric supplier or municipal utility does 38
not terminate service within one hundred twenty days after mailing the 39
initial notice of termination, such company, electric supplier or 40
municipal utility shall give the customer a new notice at least thirteen 41
days prior to termination. Every termination notice issued by a public 42
service company, electric supplier or municipal utility shall contain or 43
be accompanied by an explanation of the rights of the customer 44
provided in subsection (c) of this section. 45
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2021 New section
Sec. 2 July 1, 2021 16-262d(a) Raised Bill No. 992
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Statement of Purpose:
To require text message communications from utility companies.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]