Requiring non-publicly owned utilities to notify customers by text correspondence that they have turned off their service and an estimated time of when it will be turned back on.
Summary
HB2848 would require all public, private, and investor-owned utilities in West Virginia to send text message notifications to customers when an outage is occurring or expected. The notice must state that service has been interrupted, provide an estimated restoration time in 30-minute increments, and identify the affected area by city, county, and state boundaries. The bill is framed as an added consumer-notification requirement under the Public Service Commission’s utility oversight authority.
The requirement would take effect on July 1, 2025, and would apply broadly across utility types rather than only to investor-owned or non-public utilities. In practical terms, it would create a new statewide standard for outage communication and likely require utilities to maintain or expand customer contact systems capable of sending text alerts.
Impact
The bill would add a new section, §24-2-17a, to the West Virginia Code and expand the duties of utilities regulated under Article 2, Chapter 24. It would impose a direct notification obligation on public, private, and investor-owned utilities to provide text-based outage alerts, thereby affecting utility customer service practices, outage management procedures, and potentially compliance oversight by the Public Service Commission. Customers would gain a statutory right to receive more timely outage information by text, while utilities would face implementation and administrative costs associated with maintaining notification systems and accurate outage estimates.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears to be consumer-protection oriented and likely intended to improve transparency and communication during outages. There is no recorded committee testimony or vote history in the provided materials, so no formal opposition or support is documented here. The overall tone of the proposal is practical and service-focused, emphasizing timely information for affected customers.
Contention
The main potential points of contention are the breadth of the mandate and the operational burden on utilities. Utilities may object to the requirement that all providers, including public and private entities, send text alerts and provide estimated restoration times in 30-minute increments, which could be difficult during rapidly changing outage conditions. Another possible issue is implementation for customers who do not have text-capable phones or who have not opted into notification systems, though the bill does not address those details. No specific opposing or supporting stakeholders are identified in the available discussion materials.
Making a supplementary appropriation to the Department of Human Services, Bureau for Medical Services – Policy and Programming and State Board of Education – State Department of Education