A year ago, consumers struggling with budget-busting food and gas price hikes started falling behind on their utility bills more often.

That trend has continued in 2008, as an ongoing recession and soaring unemployment have caused even more people to suffer through mostly temporary shut-offs of gas and electric service.

Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission reported Monday that electric shut-offs are up 19 percent across the state and gas utilities service shut-offs rose this year by 11 percent.

PPL Electric Utilities shut off 22 percent more customers in 2008 than it did a year ago. UGI Gas recorded 19 percent more shut-offs in 2008 than it did in 2007.

The PUC's report did not break down how many customers were affected in Lancaster County. PPL Electric Utilities serves 206,000 customers in the county, and UGI serves more than 51,000 customers here.

State Consumer Advocate Sonny Popowsky said the increase in utility shut-offs is worrisome. He said it's understandable that utilities need to recover payments, but that termination of service should be a last resort.

"It should only be shut off after the company makes arrangements to allow the customer to pay what they can when they can," Popowsky said.

David G. DeCampli, president of PPL Electric Utilities, stressed that the company reconnected all occupied households in the 10,000-square-mile area it serves before winter.

"Each fall, we reach out to customers who are without electric service to arrange for reconnections before winter arrives," DeCampli said. "We send letters, call customers and visit homes to work out payment arrangements and let those with financial hardships know that help is available."

Some consumer advocates blame the higher shut-off rates on a 2004 law that gave utilities more authority to stop service to nonpaying customers.

A report issued Monday by the Pennsylvania PUC said considerably more households faced a potentially dangerous situation heading into last winter than in the years before the law passed.

The number of customers who had their electricity shut off in 2008 is up 51 percent compared to the average number of shut-offs between 2003 and 2006. Between those years, the average number of electric service shut-offs was 8,980 — in 2008 it soared to 13,595.

PPL shut off 3,619 customers in 2008, almost 2½ times the average of 1,460 shut-offs between 2003 and 2006.

However in 2007, shut-offs of natural gas customers in the state actually decreased 9 percent, to 5,826, compared to the average of 6,432 between 2003 and 2006, according to the survey. The rate was unchanged in 2008, according to the PUC survey.

But that trend did not hold true for UGI Gas. UGI shut off 706 customers this year, up from an average of 552 suspensions of service between 2003 and 2006.

Deborah R. Leuffen, UGI spokeswoman, said the uptick in shut-offs is the result of the economy, not the change in the law that barred utilities from shutting off service to some customers in the winter months.

"It's not a specific policy change or program change. I think we would have to attribute it to the difficult economic times," Leuffen said.

The PUC reported that many more households are taking part in assistance programs offered by utilities to help distressed customers pay their bills. Such programs have grown by more than 50 percent to $330 million, or about $45 a year per residential gas or electric customer.

Both UGI and PPL reported that their multiple payment assistance programs have been highly successful.

PPL offers cash grants through its Home Energy Assistance Program and said spending on programs for low-income customers this year will top $30 million.

UGI offers help through the Low Income Self Help Program, in which customers make a monthly UGI bill payment based on a manageable percentage of their income. About 8,400 UGI gas customers participate in this program. If a customer makes regular payments, the difference between the actual bill and the discounted bill is forgiven, as are past-due balances.

Both DeCampli and Leuffen urged customers who need assistance in paying their heating bills to contact their service provider.

"The sooner they call, the more options that will be available," Leuffen said.

E-mail: pburns@lnpnews.com