A recent order from the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) is providing customers living in “heat islands”— areas, usually urban, experiencing excessive heat — two extra days of protection from having their utility service cut off due to nonpayment.

Additionally, the PSC’s March order prohibits utility disconnections for nonpayment when temperatures are forecasted to reach 90 degrees. Some consumer and climate groups have urged the PSC to set the threshold at 85 degrees instead, as the National Center for Healthy Housing states homes should maintain indoor temperature below 85 degrees, and indoor temperatures above 77 degrees can increase risk of death in vulnerable populations.

The protections come at a time when New York is experiencing record-breaking heat and an average of 500 New Yorkers dying prematurely due to hot weather in New York City alone. Meanwhile, Central Hudson delivery rates increased on July 1, leading to higher bills for Mid-Hudson Valley customers.

However, a review of documents mapping heat islands on June 1 was discovered to list the same author on each of its filings; Jake Reinert, a senior program manager for energy policy and regulation at Central Hudson. The Public Utility Law Project of New York (PULP) alerted the PSC that these filings also used “identical language in several places.”

“The degree of similarity in language and posture across filings is concerning,” PULP’s Executive Director Laurie Wheelock wrote. “The overwhelming consistency raises serious questions about whether utilities independently analyzed and scrutinized the data and methodology they each presented.”

According to the Energy and Policy Institute, spokespeople for the mentioned electric companies, which include Central Hudson, Niagara Mohawk and Orange & Rockland have denied wrongdoing. They acknowledged that Central Hudson created a shared template and that utilities collaborated on common criteria, but that each company independently analyzed its own territory and submitted its own filings.

PULP is not satisfied, given a recent industry conference where PSEG Long Island detailed aggressive tactics to collect overdue utility bills. PULP wrote to the PSC that this raises “serious concerns about utility efforts to control the narrative above staff and other stakeholders.”

The PSC is reviewing the utility companies’ findings and is accepting public comment until September 8. To make things a little more complicated for southern Ulster, an analysis from PULP suggest that downtown Ellenville should be classified as a heat island, but Central Hudson’s map of the county only categorizes parts of Kingston as a heat island.