National Grid
Implements Additional Actions
to Protect Customers,
Employees During Pandemic
Company enhances precautionary measures,
remains focused on delivering safe, reliable energy
March 18, 2020
National Grid has implemented additional steps
to protect customers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic while
continuing to ensure the safe, reliable delivery of electricity and
natural gas across its Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island service
areas. The company's employees will continue to focus on delivering
essential customer services, while temporarily suspending
non-essential work that requires access to customers' homes or
businesses.
"Ensuring the health and safety of our
customers and employees remains our top priority," said Badar
Khan, National Grid's Interim U.S. President. "As conditions
continue to evolve, we are taking additional precautionary actions to
mitigate exposure and reduce the impact of the novel coronavirus on
our customers and the communities where we live and
serve."
Services Continuing
- Emergency
response - As always, our customers should contact us for
all gas and electricity-related emergencies, such as outages,
downed power lines and gas leaks.
- Electricity
and gas service -- We do not anticipate any service
disruption to our customers at this time. We have a
comprehensive emergency response plan in place to keep the
lights on and the gas flowing for customers.
- Customer-requested
service - We will continue to respond as usual to essential
customer needs, such as turning on or off gas and electricity
services (i.e. for a customer move), subject to municipal
permitting and work restrictions.
- Regular
billing and ability to make payments - Our regular billing
process will continue. Customers are encouraged to manage their
National Grid accounts online. We offer a variety of payment
and billing optionsdesigned to make transactions easy and
convenient. Our call center representatives remain at the ready
to assist customers, but those calling in may experience longer
than usual wait times.
- Payment
assistance - We encourage customers who are struggling to
pay their National Grid bill to contact us as soon as
possible for assistance. In addition, we offer a number of solutionsto
support our customers, including our Consumer Advocates who
provide crisis
intervention support for those in need, working
closely with state and county social service agencies and community
assistance organizations.
Activities Temporarily Paused
- Collections
activities & disconnections - On March 13 we
temporarily suspended collections-related activities, including
service disconnections, to lessen any financial hardship caused
by the COVID-19 pandemic. These policies will remain in effect
at least until the end of April, when we will evaluate their
continued need.
- Non-essential
planned electric outages - We know many individuals are
working from home and children are home from school. We are
limiting planned service interruptions during this time.
- Non-essential
electric & gas related services - Services such as
manual meter reads, oil-to-gas conversions, gas service
upgrades, and meter changes, may decrease the ability to keep
social distance. Therefore, they will be paused. In the case of
manual meter reads, this could result in estimated bills for
some customers.
- Energy
efficiency on-premise services - We are temporarily
suspending all energy efficiency service activities that require
home or business visits, such as energy audits.
Beware of Scammers
Scams related to the COVID-19 outbreak are on
the rise. Imposters claiming to be National Grid employees may
contact customers to collect past due balances, even promising a
savings on the next bill or threatening to disconnect service.
National Grid never demands direct payment through the use of a
prepaid debit card and never accepts payment through these cards. For
additional tips on how to protect against utility scams, visit www.nationalgridus.com/Our-Company/Scam-Alert.
Protecting Our Customers as We Continue
Delivering Safe, Reliable Energy
We have implemented additional measures that
will allow us to safely continue providing essential services to our
customers. Our field employees are taking precautionary measures and
are required to strictly follow CDC guidelines, including:
- Frequent
handwashing and use of sanitizer
- Avoiding
touching mouth, nose and eyes
- Keeping
a safe distance from anyone self-quarantined or sick
- Staying
home if they are sick
If it is necessary for our field workers to
enter a customer's premise for emergency or essential response, our
employees will:
- Avoid
handshakes
- Ask
that every person on the premises maintains a personal distance
of six feet or more at all times
- Ask
that anyone on the premises who is or may be ill remain in a
separate room apart from the area where our representative will
be performing service work.
- Wear
disposable latex or nitrile gloves to prevent contact with
possible contaminated surfaces.
If a customer is ill or quarantined:
- If
anyone in the home is ill or quarantined, we ask that they
advise our field representative BEFORE allowing entry.
National Grid's pandemic team continues to meet
daily and we're closely monitoring all developments associated with
the evolving pandemic. We're also sharing our preparedness
plans with regulators, federal, state and local officials, emergency
response organizations, customers and other key stakeholders.
We will continue to closely monitor this situation, review and adjust
our policies and ways of working as necessary, and will keep the
lines of communications open with our employees, customers and all
stakeholders. Additional information on National Grid's pandemic
preparedness and a customer Q&A can be found at ngrid.com/covid-19.
|
