Portion of settlement will be customer credits
New York State on Thursday (June 20) approved a $62.59 million settlement with Central Hudson over billing problems that plagued the utility.Â
The Public Service Commission said Central Hudson shareholders, not customers, will be required to pay the $35 million it cost to fix the billing system and $6.3 million to move to regular monthly meter readings. In addition, shareholders will pay $4 million to ratepayers in allocations made by the PSC.
The settlement will end the state investigation into billing system failures. Central Hudson will pay another $2 million if it does not implement monthly meter reading for the vast majority of customers by Oct. 31. The utility had asked for a February 2026 deadline.
The settlement followed a 123-page report issued by an independent monitor, which proposed that the utility end its practice of making bimonthly estimates. It found that Central Hudson had resolved its most critical billing issues. The PSC noted that in April, complaints to the agency about Central Hudson had fallen 88 percent from a year before.Â
Central Hudson has 309,000 electric and 84,000 natural gas customers in the Mid-Hudson region.
