Georgia lawmakers are weighing whether keeping the lights on can literally be a matter of life or death. On Tuesday, a Georgia House committee was set to consider a bill that would require electric suppliers across the state to pause nonpayment shutoffs for customers whose serious illnesses would be made worse if their power is cut. Backers say the plan would finally end a patchwork of rules that leaves medically fragile residents with very different protections depending on their ZIP code.
What HB 641 Would Require
House Bill 641 lays out a formal process for medically vulnerable customers to flag their situation before the power goes off. Under the proposal, a residential customer could notify their electric supplier in writing or orally, as long as an oral notice is followed up with a written one within 10 days, that they have a serious illness that would be aggravated by losing service.
Within 10 days of that notice, the customer would have to provide a written statement from a physician, county board of health, hospital, or clinic identifying the illness, estimating how long it will last, and certifying that disconnection would aggravate the condition. Once that statement is in, the supplier would have to hold the proposed shutoff in abeyance for either the estimated duration of the illness or one month, whichever is shorter. That postponement could be renewed one additional time, according to LegiScan.
Why Sponsors Pushed The Bill
State Rep. Marvin Lim, D-Norcross, introduced the bipartisan measure after hearing from patients and advocates who rely on battery-powered medical devices and said local utility rules left them dangerously exposed. Lim has argued that a person’s survival should not hinge on which power provider serves their neighborhood. “It shouldn’t be happenstance whether you get to live or die or not, depending on where you live,” he said.
The bill was scheduled for a hearing Tuesday afternoon before the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, according to Atlanta News First.
Existing Rules Cover Only Regulated Utilities
Right now, the Georgia Public Service Commission already requires regulated utilities to delay disconnection when a physician certifies that an illness would be aggravated by a loss of service. Those utilities must hold the proposed termination in abeyance for either the duration of the illness or one month, whichever is shorter, as outlined in state rules.
But many municipal electric systems and electric membership cooperatives are not under the PSC’s jurisdiction. That leaves a patchwork of policies that HB 641 is meant to fix. Local reporting has found that some city utilities offer only a single extra day before shutoff or no formal extension at all, according to WMBF.
Lives On The Line, Advocates Say
Supporters point to specific cases to drive the issue home. Atlanta News First documented a collections call from Griffin Power to a patient while she was in the back of an ambulance. Other families who depend on LVADs or oxygen reported buying generators or driving long distances because their local supplier did not guarantee any extension at all.
Backers argue that a clear statewide rule would give vulnerable households a predictable, medically backed process to pause a shutoff and buy time to line up financial help or aid programs.
What’s Next
If the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee signs off on HB 641, the bill heads to the full House for a vote. From there, it would need Senate approval before any changes take effect.
The bill text and sponsor list are public, and the measure has support from both Democrats and Republicans. At the same time, smaller municipal utilities are expected to scrutinize how the plan would work in practice, including implementation details and how much administrative flexibility they would have, according to documents on LegiScan.
