The New York State Public Service Commission is highlighting the importance of safe digging along with reminding excavators and contractors that State law requires them to call one of the State’s toll-free one-call centers before starting a project. The Commission also encourages homeowners to contact the State’s toll-free one-call center

Commission Chair Rory Christian said the keys to preventing damage to underground facilities are the two “one-call notification systems” that serve as communication links between contractors/excavators and the operators of underground facilities (local utilities and municipalities).

Companies and residents may call a toll-free line or submit location requests at any time through web-based ticket entry. Use of the one-call centers is free.

For more information about UDig NY, visit https://udigny.org/. To place a mark-out request with UDig NY, call 1-800-962-7962.

Jamestown BPU Board meeting on November 21, 2022

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities passed a 3% water rate increase for 2023 at its meeting Monday.

While the water division has an increase, the wastewater division rate is staying the same. The rate will be effective January 1, 2023.

The board also heard a presentation on the proposed 2023 Electric Budget.

General Manager Dave Leathers said the budget presents no surprises with the division stable and under control, “Obviously, with supply chain issues, lead time issues, inflationary issues, I mean, there’s costs expense creep. We had not had a rate increase since March of 2016 and so that’s quite a ways. So, we’re looking for the future here, so we’re looking more toward the end of 2023 and ’24 if there’s a need for a rate case, so I’d say that’s one item we talked a bit about.”

In order to increase the rate, the BPU has to make a request to the New York State Public Service Commission. Leathers said that process can take 12 months.

Leathers said the board is looking at what’s coming from the state under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection act in the coming years. In terms of capital projects in the near future related to that legislation, Leathers said 2023 and 2024 will be more engineering studies and preparatory work.

Also, video livestreaming, which was supposed to start this month, had to be postponed until the BPU’s meeting on December 19 due to the absence of the staff member who is to run the streaming program.

Meanwhile, the global commodity costs of natural gas, heating oil, and propane have continued to rise, resulting in utility and heating cost increases, along with additional increases in oil, gas and electricity prices.

This winter’s electricity and gas bills are expected to be higher than last year due to higher electric and gas commodity prices. On average, a residential electric customer using 600 kilo-Watt-hours per month is expected to pay about $75 per month for supply this winter, up 42 percent from the same period a year ago, but the actual amount varies by utility.

Meanwhile, the average residential customer using 732 therms of natural gas can expect to pay an estimated $240 per month during the winter heating season (November through March), up 29 percent from the same period a year ago. The PSC notes that the actual amount will vary widely by region due to the weather. A colder-than-normal winter will cause usage and bills to increase.

The New York State Public Service Commission announced that residential, business and wireless customers within the existing 716 area code region should begin to prepare for the introduction of the new 624 area code as early as the second quarter of 2024.

The Commission said the new area code is needed to meet the increasing demand for residential and business phone numbers.

Newly issued telephone numbers in the Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara counties will receive the 624 area code once all unassigned 716 telephone numbers are exhausted.

As early as the second quarter of 2024, customers in the 716-region requesting new service, an additional line, or a move in the location of their service, may be assigned a number in the new 624 area code.

Existing customers in the 716-area code will not be impacted by the new overlay area code.

The new area code is projected to provide telephone numbers for approximately 29 years.

Estimated Natural Gas Bills for Winter 2022-23 by National Fuel

Natural gas customers can expect to pay about 50% more to heat their homes this winter than last year. This is more than they have in a decade.

National Fuel said the average residential customer will spend $1,023 to heat their home from November through March.

Locally, National Fuel customers haven’t seen winter heating season bills this high since winter of 2008-2009. Last winter saw natural gas prices begin to spike, but the winter weather finished 10% warmer than normal so winter heating bills came in lower than anticipated. This time last year National Fuel had predicted average winter bills to total $714 and the actual average was $684.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that U.S. households will spend more on energy this winter than they have in several years. The reasons behind natural gas (and electric) bill increases are based on domestic and global factors. Geopolitical events, such as the war in Ukraine, are increasing demand for domestically produced liquified natural gas (LNG), exposing U.S. natural gas pricing to global market influences.

Demand for natural gas used to generate electricity is also up as electrical usage increases with rising economic activity in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here in New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul has directed Public Service Commission Chair Rory Christian to send letters to Chief Executive Officers of New York State’s largest utility companies, urging measures to mitigate the anticipated extreme commodity price increases over the winter and enhance customer communications. Hochul also directed State agencies to convene fuel providers across the state to ensure adequate heating fuels are available this winter.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the vast majority of $567 million dedicated to help low-income customers pay off past utility bills will be reflected on customers’ August bills. The financial assistance program includes an estimated $557 million statewide COVID-19 bill credit program for low-income customers adopted by the New York State Public Service Commission.

Under the bill credit program, the PSC leveraged $250 million from the 2023 State Budget to require utilities to provide a one-time credit to customers enrolled in the Energy Affordability Program that will eliminate unpaid utility bills that have accrued through May 1, 2022. The program also authorizes the same relief for any eligible low-income customers that enroll in EAP by December 31, 2022.

This one-time, low-income utility bill credit, which will be applied to affected customers’ bills by the utilities, requires no action by existing low-income customers enrolled in the EAP to receive the benefit.

To enroll in the EAP program, visit this link: https://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/AskPSC.nsf/All/E70DFECA512D19DD852588630060A17A?OpenDocument

The map, along with an accompanying report, is the result of months of field assessments conducted by the Commission in the state’s most remote areas, covering more than 80,000 miles.

In order to collect accurate data, the Commission collaborated with 60 internet service providers and surveyed tens of thousands of New York consumers.

Prior to the map’s creation, New York, like most states, relied in part on federal data that only required broadband providers to deliver service to one address in a census block to designate the entire area as served. By collecting address-level data, New York is now able to depict what locations are served, underserved, and unserved in a more granular way, which will aid in allocating state and federal funding.

The interactive map allows users to explore the state’s broadband availability. Users are able to search an address to see what providers are available, what technology those providers are using and what speeds and pricing packages they offer. Users are also able to search at county, municipal, and school district levels to obtain data on percentages of served, underserved, or unserved populations at each level.

The new map will allow individual New Yorkers and policymakers to analyze a more accurate representation of which locations are served, underserved or unserved. The Commission found that 97.4 percent of New York State address locations are served by high-speed broadband service providers. The map demonstrates that high-speed broadband services remain unavailable to many New Yorkers in predominately rural areas. Furthermore, it shows that counties with the lowest median income were found to have the highest average prices for broadband and the lowest percentage of served locations.

The link to the interactive map can be found here: https://mapmybroadband.dps.ny.gov/