POUGHKEEPSIE- Central Hudson Gas & Electric’s new President and CEO Christopher Capone was the keynote speaker at the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting, and in his remarks spoke about several topics including the company’s progress in addressing challenges with its new billing system. Capone also spoke about the utility’s proposed rate case the need for significant system investments and the impacts of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
Capone said the company is in the process of implementing its monthly meter reading plan, which when finished, will drastically reduce the instances of estimated bills for customers. According to Capone, the rollout is currently ongoing with some customers already switched over. The company expects to have all customers on monthly meter reading schedules by the end of the year.
Capone also spoke about the state’s climate laws and said he agreed that strong action needs to be taken to reduce emissions. He spoke about efficiency programs the utility has implemented that have helped customers avoid more than 1 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions through incentives on LED lightbulbs and ground and air source heat pumps.
Capone noted that the measures, “require us to essentially rebuild our current energy system by making investments at a scale larger than we’ve ever seen and completing the work in a shorter timeframe than anyone ever previously achieved.”
In addressing fixes to the recently implemented billing system, Capone said the new system is performing “similar or better” than the system it replaced in several key metrics including customers receiving bills on time and the percentage of bills that required an adjustment after being issued.
Capone said that any customer who has a question or concern is important to the company and encouraged them to reach out and that the company is working to restore trust with its customer base by cooperating with an independent third-party monitor who is analyzing the actions taken by the company in regards to the billing system implementation and verifying the accuracy of outgoing bills. Capone said he expects a report with the monitor’s findings to be made public by the end of February.
