§ 44 — Utility bills; informational notices

§ 44. Utility bills; informational notices. 1. Every utility\ncorporation or municipality shall assure that bills for service to\nresidential customers adequately explain the charges for service in\nclear and understandable form and language. The commission may, from\ntime to time, specify the form and content of such bills to further the\nobjectives of this subdivision.\n 2. The public service commission and the state board of elections\nshall coordinate a voluntary program with public utilities whereby at\nthe time service is initiated to a residential customer, a utility\ncorporation or municipality may provide each such customer with a voter\nregistration and a change-of-residence registration form.\n 3. At the time that service is initiated to a residential customer,\nand at least once every year thereafter, a utility corporation or\nmunicipality shall provide each such customer with an additional notice\nwhich summarizes the rights and obligations of residential customers\nrelating to the rendition of service. At the time any such notice is\nprovided a customer, a utility corporation or municipality shall inquire\nas to the customer's eligibility for the protection afforded the\nelderly, blind, disabled and other customers under this article. The\ncommission shall, by regulation, establish procedures to assure, to the\nextent practicable, that residential customers served by more than one\nutility corporation or municipality for gas service or for electric\nservice shall not receive duplicative annual notices in connection with\nsuch gas service or in connection with such electric service.\n 4. The commission shall require every utility corporation or\nmunicipality providing service to a county wherein at least twenty\npercent of the population regularly speak a language other than English\naccording to the most recent federal census to offer, at the request of\na residential customer residing in such a county, to prepare and send to\nsuch customer its messages on bills and notices in both English and the\nother language.\n 5. At least once a year, every utility corporation, energy services\ncompany or municipality shall provide its customers with a notice that\nbilling statements are available in large print format. Upon written\nrequest by a customer, a utility corporation, energy services company or\nmunicipality shall provide the customer's billing statements in the\nlarge print format commencing no later than sixty days after the date\nupon which the request is received by the utility corporation, energy\nservices company or municipality. The provisions of this subdivision\nshall apply only to printed statements. For the purposes of this\nsection, "large print" shall mean a printed font size of sixteen or\ngreater to illuminate billing information. For the purposes of this\nsection, "energy services company" or "ESCO" shall mean an entity\neligible to sell energy services to end-use customers using the\ntransmission or distribution system of a utility corporation.\n 6. Upon customer request, every utility corporation, energy services\ncompany or municipality shall provide copies of previous billing\nstatements and/or statements verifying that such person requesting the\ndocument is a customer of such utility corporation, energy services\ncompany or municipality. Utility companies, energy services companies\nand municipalities shall not impose any fee, charge or surcharge for\nsuch requests.\n 7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, as part of every\nbilling statement, any utility corporation that serves more than fifteen\nthousand customers in the state shall provide the average daily usage\nper month or the monthly usage at the customer's address for the prior\nthirteen months. Additionally, notwithstanding any conflicting provision\nof law, upon request by the customer, such utility corporation shall\nprovide monthly billing charge amounts at such customer's address for\nthe thirteen months prior to the current billing period, no later than\nthirty days after such request is made.\n