Richard Stropoli didn’t think much of the $25 monthly service charges he’d been paying to Central Hudson for more than a year on a vacant house in Olivebridge. With no bathroom, kitchen, or heat—and barely any electricity use—the retired heating superintendent assumed the charges were routine.

Then came a shock: a single bill for nearly $2,400, retroactively charging him for what the utility said was a year’s worth of previously unbilled power. With no clear explanation and no consistent point of contact, Stropoli, 57, was placed on a payment plan stretching to 2032—paying $80 a month for electricity he believes he never used.

“I just don’t get how it’s possible. It’s like they picked a number,” he said.

Billing records reviewed by The Overlook show that Stropoli’s usage between November 2021 and April 2022 averaged under 25 kilowatt-hours per month—totaling around $25 each month. Then, in May, a bill showed 10,338 kilowatt-hours in a single month, a 500-fold increase with no known change in infrastructure. Additional high charges followed throughout the summer and fall of 2022, and into 2023.

Stropoli is one of more than 8,000 customers over-billed—sometimes by thousands of dollars—after Central Hudson’s 2021 billing system overhaul, which state regulators now call a catastrophic failure. The utility is seeking to raise rates again—filing a proposal last August to collect $47 million more annually from electric customers and $15 million more from gas customers. If approved, that would mean a 5.3% increase in the average residential electric bill and a 5.9% jump for gas, even after mitigation.

The Public Service Commission has opened two formal cases to review the proposal, with hearings scheduled this April in Catskill, Kingston, and Poughkeepsie. Customers reported months without bills, followed by sudden charges, unauthorized auto-withdrawals, and in some cases, dozens of contradictory transactions in a single day.

For many, the problem persists.

Patience Wilcox, 29, moved from the West Coast to Catskill in 2023 and saw her electric bill soar past $1,200 a month—despite barely using heat.

“We didn’t really use our heat at all during the winter because when we got that first bill, we were shocked,” she said. “Do I choose heat or do I choose food? That’s the choice a lot of families, a lot of businesses, and a lot of people up here are having to make.”

Wilcox launched a petition calling for a public audit, which has since drawn nearly 5,000 signatures.

“It’s a monopoly,” she said. “If you look through the comments on the petition, it’s shocking what people are up against. You’re never getting that money back—it’s not equity.”

Other petition signers shared similar frustrations. One homeowner named Sarah said her bill more than doubled this winter compared to last, despite using less electricity.

“I only heat half of my 1,600-square-foot home and keep it at 60 degrees or below,” she wrote. “Last month I used less electricity than the month before and my bill was $100 more expensive. Make it make sense!”

Mike, of Earlton, said his monthly bills range from $500 to $700, with delivery fees making up as much as 75%. He described being “robbed for thousands of dollars” through estimated billing, disappearing statements, and retroactive billing.

Jeanne, a resident of Freehold, said she and her husband—a disabled veteran—live on a fixed income and are now forced to choose between electricity and other necessities. One 83-year-old petitioner wrote, “We are just two, no children, and are on retirement… Help us please.” Another described a years-long unresolved billing dispute involving 70,000 kilowatt-hours usage in a single month, calling the charges “unexplainable” and labeling the utility’s conduct “criminal.”

According to Joe Jenkins, Central Hudson’s director of media relations, recent bill increases were driven largely by “significantly colder” weather, which raised demand and supply prices. He emphasized that Central Hudson does not generate electricity or profit from supply prices, which are set by third-party vendors overseen by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).

In a statement, Kevin Lanahan, vice president of external affairs at NYISO, said: “The NYISO is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization responsible for maintaining reliability of the grid and overseeing the competitive electric markets in New York. We cannot control the price of electricity or natural gas, and any suggestion to the contrary is misleading.”

He added that events like the polar vortex and pipeline constraints led to up to ninefold spikes in natural gas prices, affecting both heating and electricity. “Generators that use natural gas in the production of electricity also experience price spikes and factor these costs into their expenses,” he said. “This has resulted in increased costs for electricity in New York.”

But those explanations don’t satisfy Wilcox. After cutting her usage sharply one month, she said, her bill barely changed.

“That’s when I saw how significant the delivery charges were,” she said. “This needs to be audited. This is crazy.”

This summer, the state Public Service Commission approved another round of delivery rate increases—16.5% for electricity and 20% for gas. That adds an average of $13 more per electric bill and $12 more for gas.

Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, D-103rd District, who represents parts of Ulster and Dutchess counties, called the approval a sign that the for-profit utility model is failing.

“Corporate utilities get rate increases and provide poor service, while large holding companies amass them across the world as purely profit-making assets,” she said.

Shrestha intervened and helped successfully block a multi-year settlement, requiring Central Hudson to return with a new rate filing in 2025. She also fought to ensure customers wouldn’t foot the bill for the utility’s in-house solar projects.

Still, she said deeper reforms are needed. Her Hudson Valley Power Authority Act proposes replacing Central Hudson with a publicly owned utility offering lower rates, democratic oversight, and a path to cleaner energy. The proposal outlines a hybrid governance model, with a governor-appointed board and a local oversight committee composed of union members, academics, and county officials.

“This is about restoring energy as a public good,” Shrestha said. “If it’s in the service of profit, it’s never going to be accountable to the people who need it most.”

In an emailed statement, she explained that residents often see high delivery charges even with low usage because Central Hudson profits only from delivery—not supply.

“These delivery rates are where the company collects the revenues it needs to pay shareholders dividends and to recoup the entire cost of operations—transmission, wages, taxes, construction, legal costs, debt service, equipment, and more,” she wrote. “To ensure the company collects enough, all ratepayers pay a minimum fixed delivery cost regardless of usage—and the less energy you use, the more you pay per kilowatt-hour.”

Shrestha added that the current model creates a “perverse incentive,” where investor-owned utilities prioritize capital projects, which boost shareholder returns, over routine maintenance, which does not. Meanwhile, regulators are left managing the utility’s financial health to avoid further rate hikes or even a sale to a less accountable parent company.

“To keep rates low and to keep the utility accountable to the public,” she said, “Central Hudson must be replaced with a public authority.”

Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger, a former state senator who once fought utility rate hikes without legal support—“I had no lawyer, you know, just… me”—has also worked to curb Central Hudson’s reach.

“I was very active in getting the Public Service Commission, the Department of Public Service, to insist on putting an independent monitor at Central Hudson,” she said. “Along with other people, we were pushing hard to end the practice of estimated billing, which they’ve now done.”

Still, she acknowledged, oversight remains limited.

“We insert ourselves where we can to try to protect our residents and small businesses,” she said.

The utility’s resumption of shut-offs, she added, has been “devastating for people.”

In June, the PSC reached a settlement with Central Hudson’s parent company, Fortis Inc., requiring shareholders—not ratepayers—to absorb up to $64.6 million in costs tied to the billing failures. The utility was also fined for failing customer service benchmarks and agreed to begin monthly meter readings by October 2024—14 months ahead of schedule.

Metzger agreed that reforming billing alone won’t be enough. “To me, the most important approach is to actually work on people’s physical homes,” she said. “Make them more energy efficient so that it permanently reduces their bills.”

But for many, that kind of investment is out of reach. And for residents like Stropoli, still paying off a bill he doesn’t understand, the questions remain unanswered.

“Just explain to me how this is occurring,” he said. “Then you’re telling me I owe $8,000?” He paused. “If I’m right, I’m right. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But no one ever explained it to me. And now I’m the one stuck paying.”

Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.