Energy Coordinator:
Shawn Anderson
email: sanderson@bcoct.org
(860) 582-7490

Through state, federal, and private funds, the energy department is able to provide eligible households with assistance in meeting their home heating and energy costs. Referral and counseling services are also available to provide information regarding energy conservation and consumption, and help with termination of utility services. Weatherization of homes and apartments is available to those meeting eligibility requirements.

For a list of items you will need to bring with you on the day of your appointment click here.

Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP)

The Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) may assist with your heating costs for your main source of heat (called "primary heat"). Benefits are limited and are not likely to cover your full winter bill.

A fixed amount is paid directly to your utility company or your deliverable fuel dealer (oil, propane, kerosene, coal or wood).

CEAP Crisis and Safety Net Benefits

CEAP crisis and safety net benefits are available only to households that heat with deliverable fuels. Once you use up your basic CEAP benefits, a one-time crisis assistance payment for a fuel delivery may be available, depending on household income. More safety net benefits may be available after that.

Households using utility services as the primary heat source cannot get crisis and safety net benefits.

Other assistance with utility & fuel bills

Operation Fuel and Fuel Banks
Operation Fuel provides emergency energy assistance for people who are not eligible for CEAP or who have used up their CEAP benefits. Payments are made directly to the company that supplies the household with energy or utility services. Local fuel banks may also have other funds available.

Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines Fund
If you or your spouse were in the armed services and were honorably discharged, you may be eligible for assistance that can be used for energy and utility bills or to make furnace repairs. Every town has an application site. For information, call Infoline at 2-1-1.

Protection from shutoffs

Life-Threatening Shutoffs

If a lack of service is life-threatening to someone in the household, electric and gas companies may not shut off or refuse to turn on utility service at any time during the year, regardless of the amount of money the customer owes. A doctor must certify that the shutoff is life-threatening by filling out a form provided by the utility.

Protection from Winter Shutoffs:

The best long-term protection from a shutoff is a payment agreement you can afford to keep. Protection for low-income persons from winter shutoffs is available under certain circumstances, depending on whether the company provides electric or gas service:

Electric Utilities: Protection from a winter shutoff is available to low-income electric utility customers by applying each fall to their electric company for "hardship" status. "Hardship" customers cannot be shut off between November 1 and May 1, even if they owe the company money. If electric service is shut off, the utility must turn it back on by November 1, even if the customer is unable to make a payment.

Arrearage forgiveness programs

Please contact your utility company directly to make arrangements.

An arrearage forgiveness program means that some of your back debt (bills) will be forgiven when you make regular payments on your bill. Households are put on a budget plan. As long as you make the payments agreed to in the budget plan, your back bills will be erased or forgiven. Your utility bill can be reduced to $0 in the arrearage forgiveness program, but it cannot result in a credit on your account. There are two parts in the arrearage forgiveness program:

• the winter program (November 1 to April 30), and
• the summer program (May 1 to October 31).

Arrearage forgiveness programs are available to gas and electric heat customers who are low income and heat with:

• Electricity from Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) or United Illuminating (UI), or
  • Gas from Yankee Gas, Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG) or Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG), and
  • Receive energy assistance for that utility's bill.
• To apply for the arrearage forgiveness program, make an appointment with a BCO caseworker, local fuel bank, or the utility company.

For the winter part of the arrearage forgiveness program,

• You must sign up with the utility company between November 1 and April 30 and make a payment agreement.
• If you receive energy assistance for your utility bill and make all the payments required in your payment agreement by April 30, you can stay on the program until October 31. The utility company will
  • match the amount you paid and match the energy assistance amount that they received, and
  • apply that amount to your bill until you no longer owe the company money.
• The utility company will tell what your monthly payment will be under this program. If you can't afford this amount, you can ask them to lower it to one that you can afford.
• You may be eligible for a special program for reduced monthly payments. If you cannot afford the amount the utility asks you to pay each month, ask for a referral to a social service agency that can determine if you are eligible for a reduced monthly payment. The reduced payment can be as low as $50 a month if that is all you can afford.
• If you do not apply for this program on time or you do not make all of your payments, you must wait until the following November for another chance to participate.
• If you stop making payments, your service may be shut off between May 1 and November 1.

For the summer part of the arrearage forgiveness program,

• Customers who successfully complete the winter part of this program can participate in the summer months. If the utility company receives all summer payments by October 30, it will match the amount you paid and apply that amount to your bill.

CL&P and UI also have arrearage forgiveness payment programs available to customers who are not eligible for the programs described above. Contact the utility company to find out how to participate in these programs.