Starting today (11/7), customers may apply for assistance from the federal government's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). PPL Electric Utilities and PPL Gas Utilities encourage eligible customers to apply for LIHEAP funds to help pay heating bills this winter.
LIHEAP applications are available at county assistance offices. The only requirement to receive assistance is income. People do not have to be on public assistance or have an overdue utility bill to qualify for LIHEAP funding.
"With high prices for oil and natural gas, our most vulnerable customers could struggle with heating costs this winter. LIHEAP is an important safety net for those families," said Robert M. Geneczko, vice president of Customer Services for PPL Electric Utilities and president of PPL Gas Utilities.
Rising oil and natural gas prices do not affect regulated rates of PPL Electric Utilities' customers, he noted. Rates for the electric generation portion of their bills are set through 2009.
Last winter, customers of PPL Electric Utilities and PPL Gas Utilities received $6.3 million in LIHEAP funds.
This year, PPL Electric Utilities is continuing an aggressive outreach program to make eligible customers aware of LIHEAP. Last winter, in the first year of the outreach program, eligible customers received $1.1 million more in LIHEAP funds than in the previous winter. The number of households served by PPL Electric Utilities who received LIHEAP funds grew by about 30 percent to nearly 19,000.
LIHEAP complements a variety of low-income assistance programs offered by PPL Electric Utilities and PPL Gas Utilities – programs that have been in place for more than 20 years.
"We have a tradition of caring for customers in need," Geneczko said. "PPL Electric Utilities was one of the first utilities to establish a hardship fund back in 1983. PPL Gas Utilities, which is one of the smallest gas companies in the state, with only 65,000 residential customers, will spend more than $1 million this year on a special reduced-rate payment plan – a program it's not required to offer."
Because high oil and natural gas prices will make the need for heating assistance more urgent, PPL has encouraged members of Congress from Pennsylvania to support an increase in program funding this winter.
Pennsylvania, which does not currently have a state-supporting heating assistance program, receives more LIHEAP funding than all but one other state.
PPL Electric Utilities serves 1.3 million homes and businesses in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania. PPL Gas Utilities serves about 75,000 homes and businesses in parts of 34 Pennsylvania counties.
Both companies are subsidiaries of PPL Corporation. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.