State extends ban on utility service disconnects

State Corporation Commission will delay disconnects until June 14.

Published April 9, 2020 by Richard Foster

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Virginia State Corporation Commission has extended the ban on utilities disconnecting electricity, water, sewer and gas services until June 14.

“While we fervently wish otherwise … it appears that the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unlikely to abate significantly” by mid-May, when the order was originally scheduled to end, according to a statement from the SCC.

Despite the order, the SCC warns customers that they will still owe payment for utility services received after the disconnect bans expires.

“If such bills are never paid, the costs of these unpaid bills … do not disappear; they are shifted to other customers, who themselves may be struggling to make ends meet in the economic catastrophe caused by the pandemic,” the SCC wrote in the order.