When Connecticut Water Company established its discount program for low-income households in 2021, customers were grappling with rising utility rates, and a pandemic that disrupted the global economy.
The company reduced water bills by 15% for eligible households, establishing a discount that became the first of its kind in Connecticut for water utilities.
A few years later, the program expanded to ensure customers pay no more than 2% of their annual income on water bills. Discounts are offered in three tiers depending on income level.
Enrollments grew after the changes. As of last June, more than 2,300 customers participated.
But those numbers dropped by more than half just a few months later. When we learned of the precipitous decline, reporters at Connecticut Public wanted to know more. We then discovered a mistake by the utility that was affecting hundreds of customers.
Connecticut Water Company serves more than 100,000 households across 60 towns. The utility's Water Rate Assistance Program, known as WRAP, provides a discount for households earning up to 60% of the state median income.
Michelle Royce Williams, the company's vice president of customer experience, addressed the declining enrollment at a December meeting of the state's Low-Income Energy and Water Advisory Board. She said tighter eligibility requirements were driving the drop. That caught our attention.
Under existing rules, participants reverify their income every two years.
A new energy law requires annual income verification for utility assistance programs. Connecticut Water believed it needed to implement the reverification process by July 1, the law's effective date.
However, we learned from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority that Connecticut Water misinterpreted the timeline for the change.
A spokesperson said the law doesn’t require any changes until the company’s next rate case. Connecticut Water had missed a crucial detail.
I relayed the information to Williams from Connecticut Water. At the time, the company said it did not know how many households were removed in error.
By the end of January, a week after Connecticut Public first reported the mistake, Connecticut Water had implemented a series of fixes.
The company discovered it removed 939 customers from the program who should have remained eligible, according to a report filed with the state board in February.
Connecticut Water provided credits totaling more than $45,000 to those customers and reinstated the two-year income reverification policy.
Of the affected households, 873 were automatically re-enrolled because their original participation period had not expired.
The company called the remaining 66 households that had passed the two-year deadline to request they reverify their income and return to the program if eligible.
Connecticut Water also sent written notices to every impacted household with an explanation of the mistake, Williams said.
Enrollment in the company’s assistance program has since rebounded to nearly 2,100 customers.
“We obviously regret that this error happened,” Williams told me. “We definitely wanted to take accountability.”
