Rhode Island

RIStrong

Days notice (electric)

Days notice (gas)

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Winter moratorium

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Medical exemption

What to do today

If you have a shutoff notice, the date on it is the one that matters. These steps work best in this order.

Call your utility before the date on your notice
Ask for a payment plan or a deferred payment arrangement. Most states require your utility to offer one, and asking before the date is what keeps your service on. The number is on your bill.
Apply for energy assistance
LIHEAP helps with utility bills and does not have to be paid back. Call the national referral line on 1-866-674-6327 weekdays 9am to 7pm Eastern, or visit energyhelp.us.
Dial 211 for local help
211 is free and connects you to local funds for utilities, rent and food. Some local agencies can pay a utility directly to stop a shutoff.
Ask about medical certification
Rhode Island recognises medical protections. If anyone in your home has a serious illness or relies on powered medical equipment, a note from a doctor can delay a shutoff. Ask your utility for the form today, because it usually has to be back within days.
Contact the regulator if your utility will not work with you
ripuc.ri.gov handles complaints against regulated utilities in Rhode Island. Filing one can pause a disconnection while it is looked at.

Electric Gas Water Medical Low Income Regulator

Electric Shutoff Rules

Regulatory notice required10 days

Reconnection fee$25 to $44 standard, at 3 of 3 utilities below

Winter moratorium: November 1–April 15 moratorium: no gas or electric utility may terminate service to any residence for non-payment during this period where service is the primary heat source (except when delinquent balance exceeds $500) or non-primary heat source (except when balance exceeds $200). Prior to actual termination during moratorium, utility must file a 48-hour advance affidavit with the Division. Strong threshold-based protection.

Major Utilities

Rhode Island Ener…Clear River Elec …Block Island Powe…

Rhode Island Energy

Electric delivery across nearly all of Rhode Island. Legal name The Narragansett Electric Company d/b/a Rhode Island Energy, a PPL Corporation subsidiary; the d/b/a appears on the page footer of every sheet of the company's PUC-filed tariffs. The RIPUC's Regulated Utilities list names only three regulated electric utilities in the state, so the parts of Rhode Island not served by Rhode Island Energy are Block Island (New Shoreham) and the Pascoag/Harrisville area of Burrillville. The company's own press release of August 25, 2026 states it 'provides essential energy services to over 770,000 customers across Rhode Island through the delivery of electricity and natural gas' -- a combined electric-and-gas figure, not an electric-only count.

10-day notice

Section 1.4(F) bars gas or electric shutoff during the utility termination moratorium period -- defined in Section 1.2 as 12:01 a.m. on November 1st to 11:59 p.m. on May 1st, the end date having moved from April 15th by the 2025 amendment in Docket 24-36-RM -- unless the delinquent balance exceeds $500.00 where the service is the primary source of heat, or exceeds $200.00 where it is not

810-RICR-10-00-1 Section 1.5(A) requires that service 'shall not be terminated for nonpayment unless the customer has been sent written notice of the public utility's intention to disconnect, mailed so as to be received, under reasonable circumstances, at least ten (10) days in advance of the date of the proposed disconnection.' Section 1.3(A) applies these Commission rules to corporations under RIPUC jurisdiction that operate electric utilities, and the RIPUC's own Regulated Utilities list names Rhode Island Energy as a regulated electric utility, so no inference about scope is needed

The Rhode Island Department of State's regulation site shows this Part as an ACTIVE RULE effective 06/23/2025, with the prior versions (01/04/2022 and earlier) marked INACTIVE

'delinquent balance' means an amount unpaid at least ten calendar days after it was due

The rule sets no dollar reconnection fee itself: Section 1.7(B) says only that a utility 'may charge the customer a reconnection fee authorized by the Public Utilities Commission.' Rhode Island Energy's current tariff supplies that figure -- RIPUC No

2300, Section 8, 'Stopping Service,' makes discontinuance 'subject to the rules and regulations of the Commission' and sets a $32.00 reconnection charge

Note that RIPUC No

2300 took effect 9/1/2026 and cancels R.I.P.U.C

2275, the tariff cited in an earlier draft of this row

the $32.00 figure is unchanged between them

Reconnection fee:$32.00, per the company's current filed tariff (RIPUC No. 2300, Terms and Conditions for Distribution Service, Section 8.1.1, Sheet 8, issued 11/26/2025, effective 9/1/2026, canceling R.I.P.U.C. No. 2275)

Assistance Programs

Low-Income Discount Rate (Rate A-60, RIPUC No. 2283, effective 9/1/2026): total bill discounted 25% for customers eligible for LIHEAP or enrolled in SNAP or receiving SSI, and 30% for customers enrolled in Medicaid, Rhode Island Works or General Public Assistance. A settlement filed in RIPUC Docket 25-45-GE replaces that with a five-tier income-based structure -- 75% at 0-50% of the federal poverty limit, then 66%, 56%, 38% and 10% at >150%-250% FPL -- which the company agreed to implement by March 1, 2027. Forgiveness Program / Arrearage Management Program (RIPUC No. 2295, effective 9/1/2026): open to LIHEAP-approved customers on Rate A-60 with a balance of at least $300.00 more than 60 days past due, forgiving up to $1,500 per year against a 12-month payment plan; a 25% down payment is required only if service has already been shut off. Company press release of 8/25/2026 also names the United Way's Good Neighbor Energy Fund, to which it says it is the largest single donor, and an employee-funded 'Operation Help' direct bill-assistance program.

"810-RICR-10-00-1 -- Rules and Regulations Governing the Termination of Residential Electric, Gas and Water Utility Service (Rhode Island Department of State)." rules.sos.ri.gov. Retrieved 22 Sep 2026.

Clear River Electric and Water District

Village of Pascoag and the Harrisville area of the Town of Burrillville, RI. The district's own site describes it as a quasi-municipal, not-for-profit utility incorporated by a special act of the Rhode Island General Assembly, serving roughly 5,000 electric customers in Pascoag and Harrisville and roughly 2,200 water customers in Pascoag, Harrisville, Mapleville and Oakland. Formerly Pascoag Utility District: the name change was filed on its PUC tariffs on 12/30/2024 in RIPUC Docket 24-14-EL, and the district's tariffs carry the Clear River name with an effective date of January 1, 2025.

10-day notice

Section 1.5(A) therefore sets the at-least-ten-day written notice before disconnection for nonpayment, and Section 1.4(F) the November 1 to May 1 winter moratorium with its $500.00 (primary heat) / $200.00 (other) delinquent-balance ceilings

810-RICR-10-00-1 Section 1.3(A) applies these Commission termination rules to 'municipalities, and cooperatives which are under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission,' and the RIPUC's own Regulated Utilities list names 'Clear River Electric and Water District (formerly Pascoag Utility District)' as a regulated electric utility, so the rule reaches this quasi-municipal district directly rather than by inference

The district's own current tariff corroborates this: RIPUC No

707, paragraph 19 'Discontinuance of Service,' opens 'Subject to the Rules and Regulations of the Commission' before setting the reconnection charges -- $44 during normal office hours, $111 after normal office hours, and $83 / $214 if the reconnection must be done at the pole

RIPUC No

707 is still the district's operative Terms and Conditions

its own tariff index lists no later replacement

Reconnection fee:$44.00 during normal office hours / $111.00 after normal office hours; $83.00 (normal hours) or $214.00 (after hours) if the reconnection must be made at the pole (RIPUC No. 707, Terms and Conditions for Electric Service, filing date 4/5/2024, effective 1/1/2025)

Assistance Programs

Arrearage Management Program (AMP), filed as RIPUC No. 850 under R.I. Gen. Laws Section 39-2-1(d)(2): forgives past-due balances for customers who are LIHEAP-eligible and have a minimum balance of $300.00 more than 60 days past due, up to an annual maximum of $1,500, conditioned on a 12-month payment plan and participation in the District's energy-efficiency programs (which include a free energy audit). A customer whose service has already been terminated must make an initial payment of 25% of the total unpaid balance to enroll.

Block Island Power Company

Block Island (Town of New Shoreham), RI. The legal entity is the Block Island Utility District, which does business as Block Island Power Company -- the name RIPUC uses in its docket captions and on its Regulated Utilities list. The Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers describes it as 'a quasi-municipal corporation established under the Block Island Utility District Act of 2017' that 'began operations on March 25, 2019, and is the successor to the former stockholder-owned Block Island Power Company,' serving 1,977 customers (1,636 residential) as of calendar year 2022. It is not part of Rhode Island Energy's territory.

10-day notice

What that sheet does print corroborates that the company works under this rule -- the same $500 (primary heat) / $200 (other) delinquent-balance thresholds Section 1.4(F) uses, the same protected-status categories, and the same appeal route to the 'Review Officer, Public Utilities Division, 86 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick.' Treat that page's own summary with care: it cites the 'Rules and Regulations Governing the Termination of Residential Electric Service, dated April 11, 2012' and gives the winter period as November 1 to April 1, both of which the current rule supersedes (the moratorium now runs November 1 to May 1)

The RIPUC's own Regulated Utilities list names 'Block Island Utility District d/b/a Block Island Power Company' as a regulated electric utility, which puts it inside Section 1.3(A) of 810-RICR-10-00-1 -- the rule reaches 'municipalities, and cooperatives which are under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission' -- so Section 1.5(A)'s at-least-ten-day written notice before disconnection for nonpayment applies

The ten-day figure comes from that rule, not from any Block Island document: the company's own rate-and-terms sheet prints no day count at all

The $25.00 / $50.00 reconnection charges come from that same company page and could not be cross-checked against a commission-filed terms-and-conditions tariff

the BIPCO tariff on the RIPUC site is a 2008 rate sheet, and the district's 2026 compliance tariff in Docket 25-56-EL contains only power supply, transmission and net metering rates

Reconnection fee:$25.00 during normal business hours / $50.00 after normal business hours (the company's own published rate and terms sheet; no PUC-filed terms-and-conditions tariff carrying these figures was located, so this rests on the utility's own page)

Assistance Programs

No named low-income discount or arrearage-forgiveness program was found on any accessible primary source. The company's own rate-and-terms sheet lists protections against termination rather than a program: households where everyone is 62 or older, where a member is handicapped or seriously ill, where there is a person under 24 months old, where the customer is eligible for heating assistance, or where the principal wage earner is receiving unemployment compensation; it also offers a residential payment plan.

"Rates & Terms -- Block Island Power Company." blockislandpowercompany.com. Retrieved 22 Sep 2026.

Gas Shutoff Rules

Regulatory notice required10 days

Reconnection feeVaries by utility

Major Utilities

Rhode Island Energy

Natural gas delivery within Rhode Island Energy's RIPUC-filed gas service territory (RIPUC RIE-GAS No. 101). Same legal entity as the electric operations, The Narragansett Electric Company d/b/a Rhode Island Energy, a PPL Corporation subsidiary. The RIPUC's Regulated Utilities list names Rhode Island Energy as the only regulated gas utility in the state. The company's own press release of August 25, 2026 states it serves 'over 770,000 customers across Rhode Island through the delivery of electricity and natural gas'; no gas-only customer count was found on a primary source, so none is claimed here.

10-day notice

Section 1.4(F)'s moratorium, November 1 to May 1 since the 2025 amendment in Docket 24-36-RM, bars gas shutoff unless the delinquent balance exceeds $500.00 where gas is the primary heat source or $200.00 where it is not

810-RICR-10-00-1 Section 1.3(A) applies these Commission rules to gas utilities under RIPUC jurisdiction, and Section 1.5(A) -- which is written for utilities generally, not per fuel -- requires written notice mailed to arrive at least ten (10) days before the proposed disconnection for nonpayment

The same day count therefore governs gas and electric here

Rhode Island has one chapter for both, unlike states that split them

The utility's own current gas tariff supplies the fee: RIPUC RIE-GAS No

101, Section 8.0 'Discontinuance of Service,' makes disconnection 'Subject to the applicable regulations of the PUC and the Division' and charges an account restoration charge on turn-on after a shut-off for nonpayment, which Item 13.0 'Schedule of Administrative Fees and Charges' sets at $96.00, waived for Rate 11 and Rate 13 low-income customers

This is the revision issued 11/26/2025 and effective 9/1/2026 out of Docket 25-45-GE, which supersedes the Tenth Revision (effective 9/1/2022) cited in an earlier draft

the $96.00 figure is unchanged, but the fee schedule moved from Item 12.0 to Item 13.0

Reconnection fee:$96.00 Account Restoration Charge (RIPUC RIE-GAS No. 101, General Terms and Conditions, Schedule A Sheet 14, Twelfth Revision, Item 13.0, issued 11/26/2025, effective 9/1/2026); waived for customers on the low-income Rate 11 and Rate 13 classes

Assistance Programs

The same programs as the electric row, because Rhode Island Energy runs them across the combined energy bill: the income-eligible discount rate (25% for LIHEAP / SNAP / SSI customers, 30% for Medicaid / Rhode Island Works / General Public Assistance customers, moving to a five-tier 10%-75% income-based structure the company agreed in RIPUC Docket 25-45-GE to implement by March 1, 2027) and the Forgiveness Program / Arrearage Management Program, which forgives up to $1,500 per year for LIHEAP-approved customers with a balance of at least $300 more than 60 days past due. Separately, the gas tariff waives the $96.00 Account Restoration Charge outright for low-income Rate 11 and Rate 13 customers.

Water Shutoff Rules

Regulatory notice required10 days

Major Utilities

Providence Water …Kent County Water…

Providence Water Supply Board

Its own testimony in RIPUC Docket 24-51-WW (filed 11/26/2024) describes a system that 'serves seven wholesale customers and over 75,000 retail customers' and 'supplies clean drinking water to 600,000 Rhode Islanders.' The seven wholesale customers named in its current tariff are Bristol County Water Authority, East Providence, Kent County, Warwick, Greenville, Lincoln and Smithfield. Retail service covers Providence, North Providence, Cranston and Johnston, plus the area of the former East Smithfield Water District.

10-day notice

That general applicability clause is not limited to the winter-moratorium provisions, which are separately confined by their own text to a 'gas or electric public utility,' so Section 1.5(A)'s at-least-ten-day written notice before disconnection for nonpayment reaches Providence Water while Section 1.4(F)'s moratorium does not

810-RICR-10-00-1 Section 1.3(A) applies these Commission rules to entities under RIPUC jurisdiction 'which own or operate electric, gas, or water utilities in the State of Rhode Island,' and the RIPUC's own Regulated Utilities list names Providence Water Supply Board as a regulated water utility

The ten-day figure comes from the Commission rule

no Providence Water document states a day count

The fee figures come from the utility's own PUC-filed tariff, Schedule F, which lists a Service Shutoff Fee of $64.00 and a Service Restoration Fee of $43.00

those two amounts are identical in the tariff effective July 1, 2021 (Docket 4994), the one effective August 1, 2025, and the Step 2 compliance tariff effective July 1, 2026 in Docket 24-51-WW

No low-income, hardship or arrearage-forgiveness program appears anywhere in that tariff or in the 2024 rate filing, and provwater.com returns HTTP 403 to this project's fetcher on every path tried, so assistance_programs is left null rather than guessed

The retail municipality list is derived, not quoted: the rate filing's statutory notice names eleven recipients, seven of which are the wholesale customers listed in the tariff, leaving Providence, North Providence, Cranston and Johnston

the tariff separately carries retail surcharges for 'the former customers of the East Smithfield Water District' and 'the former customers of the Town of Johnston Water System,' and the FY2024 annual report accounts separately for the Western Cranston Water District System

Reconnection fee:$43.00 Service Restoration Fee; a separate $64.00 Service Shutoff Fee also applies (Providence Water Supply Board Tariff, Schedule F Service Fee Schedule, effective July 1, 2026, filed in RIPUC Docket 24-51-WW Step 2)

Kent County Water Authority

Kent County, RI. The Authority's own site says it serves 'the towns of Coventry, East Greenwich, West Greenwich, West Warwick and the City of Warwick,' plus portions of Cranston, Scituate and North Kingstown, reaching over 87,780 inhabitants through 27,392 service connections and 469 miles of water main. It buys its treated water wholesale from the Providence Water Supply Board.

10-day notice

810-RICR-10-00-1 Section 1.3(A) applies these Commission rules to water utilities under RIPUC jurisdiction, and the RIPUC's own Regulated Utilities list names Kent County Water Authority as a regulated water utility

the Authority's own rate schedule is headed 'KCWA PUC DOCKET# 25-34-WW,' which is the same jurisdiction stated from the utility's side

Section 1.5(A)'s at-least-ten-day written notice before disconnection for nonpayment therefore applies

The ten-day figure comes from the Commission rule alone -- KCWA's own Rules and Regulations print no advance-notice day count

What they do say matters to a customer reading them: Part II Section 2.4.1.2 provides that bills unpaid 28 days from the date of rendering 'shall be subject to immediate termination of service and an additional turn off fee,' and Section 2.4.3 makes the Authority's delinquency notices a courtesy whose non-receipt does not excuse payment

That 28-day trigger is when the account becomes shut-off eligible, not a substitute for the Commission's ten-day notice

Section 2.3.5.2 routes an unresolved billing dispute to the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, office of Consumer Protection Affairs -- the same office 810-RICR-10-00-1 designates

No low-income, hardship or forgiveness program appears in the Authority's regulations or rate schedule, so assistance_programs is null

residential payment plans are available under Part II Section 2.4.2 if applied for within 15 days of bill receipt

Reconnection fee:$45.00 Turn On Charge per occurrence; a separate $55.00 Turn Off Charge also applies, and both must be paid in full before service is turned back on (Kent County Water Authority Rate Schedule, KCWA PUC Docket #25-34-WW, effective 9/1/2025)

Medical & Vulnerable Household Exemptions

Medical certification postpones disconnection. Rhode Island PUC rules protect households with life-threatening medical conditions.

Low-Income Protections

LIHEAP / Rhode Island Energy Assistance Program available through RI DHS. National Grid RI offers low-income discount programs. George Wiley Center provides consumer advocacy for utility issues.

Your State Regulator

File a complaint or get help from Rhode Island's utility regulator →

Data last verified: 2026-09-22. Rules may change — verify with your state regulator.