Oregon’s largest natural gas utility is paying customers back after it cut off service to nearly 200 households enrolled in bill discount programs, when the utility promised it would not do so through the end last year.

Some low-income Oregonians were without gas to heat their homes for more than two months, for nonpayment of as little as $54, according to a watchdog’s review of the company’s data.

NW Natural, which serves nearly 2 million people across the Pacific Northwest, said the 198 customers were disconnected due to “an unfortunate error in implementation … despite being eligible for the temporary moratorium that we voluntarily set in response to the federal government shutdown.”

NW Natural found the mistake at the end of January when it submitted data on disconnections due to nonpayment.

“This mistake was ours, and it was a mistake,” NW Natural senior director of communications David Roy said in a statement. “We made every customer whole as soon as we were aware of the issue.”

A federal shutdown

Many customers were disconnected in the midst of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which lasted 43 days. That shutdown left federal workers unpaid, and many people who rely on federal assistance programs to afford food or pay energy bills faced lapses in support.

Payments were delayed for people enrolled in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helped more than 114,000 lower-income Oregon households pay energy bills the previous year.

In 2024, Oregon received $41.7 million in LIHEAP funding for those Oregonians. These funds are most in demand during the coldest months of the year, November through March, as people use LIHEAP to afford more energy to heat their homes.

In early November 2025, with no end to the federal shutdown in sight, more than a dozen Oregon lawmakers sent a letter to the Oregon Public Utility Commission, the state entity that regulates utilities, to request utilities halt disconnections for households impacted by the federal government shutdown. NW Natural was one of the six companies that said they would halt shutoffs through the end of the year for income-qualified customers.

But quarterly disconnection data reports showed the company did shut power off to nearly 200 of those customers for nonpayment.

“I honestly at the time thought it must just be a reporting error,” Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board equity analyst Sarah Wochele said.

One household was disconnected for 79 days over a $112.89 unpaid bill. Another was without natural gas service for 78 days over a $54 unpaid bill, she said.

“We often say in this space that being unable to afford your energy bills is really the canary in the coal mine for eviction, for losing your housing,” she said.

After Oregon CUB reached out to the utility through a state regulatory process, Wochele said, NW Natural acknowledged the mistake.

According to Roy, the company acted fast as soon as it was made aware of the issue.

He said the company restored gas service to a “vast majority” of customers one or two days after they were disconnected, and it refunded reconnection fees by February after hearing from Oregon CUB. Some customers had already paid their balances and been reconnected by then. Roy said the company also provided an additional $150 bill credit to all affected customers and extended payment plans to help them pay off balances.

“We absolutely share CUB’s concerns about our customers, including/especially our low-income customers. That’s why we offer multiple programs and payment options and lead the region for active enrollment in our low-income bill assistance program at 71% of all those eligible,” Roy said in an emailed statement.

Watchdog pushes for penalties

Oregon CUB is calling for the utility to offer more financial support to the customers whose service it cut.

The utility watchdog is also asking regulators to issue a $10,000 penalty or fine for each impacted household for the NW Natural’s “errors and mismanagement.” That would total nearly $2 million.

“At the end of the day, this is serious mismanagement by NW Natural and that needs to be accounted for,” Wochele said.

But NW Natural’s Roy said the company did what it could to make things right for affected customers when it found out about the error.

“For CUB to insinuate otherwise completely ignores our proven track record, as well as the fact that we identified the error, corrected it and then reimbursed the small number of customers impacted – all voluntarily and as quickly as possible,” Roy said.

Higher disconnection rates across utilities

Last year, more Oregonians saw their gas or electricity cut off than any other year since the state started tracking disconnections.

In 2025, 71,190 customers were disconnected by Oregon’s largest utilities, according to Oregon CUB.

• NW Natural: 12,363
• Pacific Power: 23,224
• PGE: 33,764
• Idaho Power: 558
• Cascade Natural Gas: 418
• Avista Gas: 863.

That’s about 1,500 more households than 2024.

• NW Natural: 9,162
• Pacific Power: 22,491
• PGE: 35,324
• Idaho Power: 563
• Cascade Natural Gas: 794
• Avista Gas: 1,346.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/21/oregon-nw-natural-gas-repays-households-disconnected-shutdown/