JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Do you owe money to the JEA? A summer grace period by JEA is ending on Sunday at midnight.
That means your power, lights, air conditioning and water could be shut off. JEA says disconnections could start as early as 8 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 19.
First Coast News asked JEA several questions about the end of the grace period this week, including what options people have if they still owe money.
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Q & A with JEA
Update: Customers can pay Monday morning as long as they haven't already been disconnected. But JEA says it encouragescustomers to not delay.
How many people still have unpaid balances?
More than 45,000 customers had overdue balances as of Sept. 14. This number includes residential, business, and prepaid customers.
Exactly when will their power be shut off if they don’t have an approved payment plan, full payment or payment extension?
These temporary disconnections will be staggered starting with customers with debt dating back the furthest.
Disconnections could start as early as 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 19.
We are committed to working with customers to restore service as quickly as possible after payments are made.
What will be disconnected? Lights, electricity, water?
JEA will begin by disconnecting electricity. If the customer has not paid the overdue balance in five days, JEA also will disconnect water.
Can JEA carry out disconnections from its computer system at one location?
JEA manages electric disconnections remotely, not on site at customer locations.
Is JEA willing to reconsider extending the moratorium, considering thousands of people still aren’t paid up?
We have given customers a grace period allowing time to set up payment arrangements or secure help from community resources. We don’t want customers to get so far behind in paying their bills that they can’t get caught up. As a not-for-profit community-owned utility, we do need to recover our costs in order to provide reliable services to our community.
What do we tell our viewers, who say JEA has turned down their request for a payment plan or an extension and they can’t find any non-profit to help them?
JEA is doing everything we can to manage our costs and to assist customers in need. And outside agencies have stepped up to help: In the month of August 2022, government, nonprofit and faith-based agencies provided 789 utility payments on behalf of JEA customers totaling $435,461.
Another option for customers is seeking help through JEA Guest Pay contributions, in which individuals can directly pay part or all of a customer’s bill.
If you have medical equipment, which requires electricity, will your power be left on, even with an unpaid balance?
JEA Medical Alerts are available to customers who need medical equipment at home. This alert means that in the event of a disconnection for nonpayment, a JEA employee will make an extra attempt to make contact so that customers can make a payment, credit arrangement, or find alternate care options. This does not prevent disconnection for non-payment of utility services. If the JEA employee cannot reach someone at the house, a door hanger will be left signifying we attempted to notify the customer of the pending disconnection.
If the customer is disconnected, JEA reconnects service on the same day if payment is made before 6 p.m. Monday - Friday.
Would this be the highest number of disconnects ever for the JEA? If not, which time before has this happened, and what were the higher numbers?
We don’t have data available right now on whether this may be the highest number of disconnections, but we do have a month-to-month breakdown of disconnections and late accounts in the past 20 months
Is there any other message you’d like us to give before the weekend?
As a community-owned utility, we do not want to disconnect any customers. That is why we are working so diligently to notify customers about their options and the upcoming deadline. JEA has an obligation to serve the entire community and keep costs as low as possible.