As electricity usage surges alongside summer temperatures, Delmarva Power announces a Customer Relief Fund, in partnership with the state, to help people struggling to pay rising electricity bills.
The utility, which serves some 324,000 electricity consumers in the state, announced Monday that it is creating a Customer Relief Fund, with $4.5 million available to low and moderate income consumers.
“What the fund is going to do is, if you qualify in the fund, you can get up to a $300 break on your electricity," said CEO Tyler Anthony. "And here we are coming into that July bills, August bills when they're going to need it the most.”
The program, targeted to low and moderate income customers who qualify for federal and state energy assistance programs, will be administered by the state.
Anthony says he understands consumers are frustrated by rising electricity bills, which he says are caused by increases in the cost of power.
“You take the last 2-3 years, the price of electricity has just continued to go up," he says. "Even recently, here in June, prices for us to purchase power - that's basically the generation of the electricity - has gone up yet again.”
Anthony says the creation of the fund is a way for the multibillion dollar company to maintain trust with its customers.
“We spend so much time building relationships and a level of trust with customers and this cost kind of erodes that," he said.
Delmarva has been in front of state regulators several times in recent years to ask for rate increases, leading to sometimes testy exchanges with state lawmakers. The company says the rate hikes are necessary and driven by the rising cost to purchase power to distribute to consumers.
