Mississippi Winter Utility Shutoff Rules

Q: Is there help with the heating bill in Mississippi?

Mississippi runs Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) through Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Community Services. The heating assistance page for Mississippi covers the income test and the front door.

Protection filed for

What the rule runs on

the households that filed, and no one else

Dec 1 to Apr 1

The winter window

December 1 through April 1

Regulated only

Who the rule reaches

Regulated utilities only

Act first

The household must

the protection is not automatic

The answer

What Mississippi requires of a utility in winter

Protection filed for

Once the household files, Dec 1 to Apr 1

For December, January, February and March a residential electric or gas customer who certifies extreme financial difficulty and signs the extended payment plan cannot be disconnected, and a physician's certificate of medical emergency holds off disconnection even when the plan is broken.

What switches it on: Mississippi's protection is filed for rather than automatic, so a household that has not filed is not covered inside the season.
Utilities named: electric and natural gas
Who it reaches: The rule binds the utilities Mississippi Public Service Commission regulates. A household on a municipal system or a rural cooperative is covered by that system's own policy instead.
What the household must do: The customer tells the utility they cannot pay because of extreme financial difficulty, delivers a copy of the most recent bill with a signed statement certifying that difficulty, clears everything billed before November 11th, and signs a payment plan at 133 percent of the levelized bill.

That is Mississippi Public Service Commission speaking through its own rule, and the sentence below is the one the summary above was built from. The citation is Mississippi Public Service Commission, Service Rule 8.120 (Mid-Winter Utility Service Cutoffs for Electric and Gas Residential Customers), Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service, effective February 10, 2012.

For the months of December, January, February and March of each year, residential customers who are unable to pay the full amount of their utility bill because of extreme financial difficulty may qualify for mid-winter rule which prohibits disconnection of service in those cases where the customer has complied with the following:

Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service, Mississippi Public Service Commission, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Do this first

The step that switches the protection on in Mississippi

Mississippi is one of the states where the rule does not arrive on its own. Households who assume the season protects them find out otherwise in the middle of it, and the difference between the two outcomes is the paragraph below.

The customer tells the utility they cannot pay because of extreme financial difficulty, delivers a copy of the most recent bill with a signed statement certifying that difficulty, clears everything billed before November 11th, and signs a payment plan at 133 percent of the levelized bill.

Do it before the disconnection date on the notice rather than after. Several states word the protection so that it stops a shutoff that has not happened yet and says nothing about restoring service that has.

Already off, or a notice has come

Who to call in Mississippi today

A household already cut off, or facing cutoff, can stop it with an approved LIHEAP award covering the delinquent balance, with a doctor's letter certifying a life threatening situation, or by negotiating a delayed payment plan, and reconnection is due on the first business day after the balance is paid.

Who takes the complaint: Mississippi Public Service Commission
By phone: 601-961-5434

Mississippi Public Service Commission, how to file

Ratepayers shall have the right to avoid discontinuation of service of electric or natural gas service for nonpayment, if the ratepayer has been approved for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) benefits in an amount equal to the delinquent balance, payable within thirty (30) days, and the notice of the approval has been given to the utility provider.

Mississippi Public Service Commission, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A commission’s consumer division is not a courtesy line. In most states a company must hold a disconnection while a formal complaint about that account is open, which is a different and stronger thing than asking the company to reconsider. Ring the utility first, then the commission if the answer is no.

The corner of a shingled house showing the mast and weatherhead where overhead lines land on the roof, and the round electric meter mounted on the wall below — The mast on the roof and the meter under it, on an ordinary house in Washington State. This is where an electric disconnection physically happens, and it is also why the rules are written by a public utility commission rather than a legislature in a good many states: the commission regulates the company that owns this wire. “Residence service drop”, Chetvorno, CC0

Who it covers

Does the Mississippi rule cover your utility

The rule binds the utilities Mississippi Public Service Commission regulates. A household on a municipal system or a rural cooperative is covered by that system's own policy instead.

That means a rural electric cooperative and a municipal light or gas department in Mississippi answer to their own board or their own city council on this, not to Mississippi Public Service Commission. Many adopt a winter policy of their own that is as protective or more so, and the place to find it is the cooperative's or the town's own tariff.

The rule names electric and natural gas service.

Help with the bill

Mississippi pays part of the heating bill through Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

A shutoff rule and a heating grant are separate things, and in several states an approved grant application is itself what satisfies the filing the shutoff rule asks for. Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Community Services runs it. The income test is household income at or below 60 percent of the state median income for the household size.

LIHEAP is offered in each of the 82 counties in Mississippi, pending the availability of funds. Vulnerable households receive the greatest priority among families who qualify for services.

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Mississippi Department of Human Services, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The full Mississippi page, with the season, the income test and how to apply, is at heating assistance in Mississippi.

Mississippi winter shutoff questions

Can a utility shut off heat in winter in Mississippi?

Mississippi's protection is filed for rather than automatic, so a household that has not filed is not covered inside the season. For December, January, February and March a residential electric or gas customer who certifies extreme financial difficulty and signs the extended payment plan cannot be disconnected, and a physician's certificate of medical emergency holds off disconnection even when the plan is broken.

Does Mississippi have a winter shutoff moratorium with dates?

Not in the form the question usually assumes. The protection is granted to a household that files for it, so the filing, not the calendar, is what switches it on. The short form of it is: Once the household files, Dec 1 to Apr 1. Mississippi Public Service Commission, Service Rule 8.120 (Mid-Winter Utility Service Cutoffs for Electric and Gas Residential Customers), Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service, effective February 10, 2012 is the rule behind it.

What does a household in Mississippi have to do to be covered?

The customer tells the utility they cannot pay because of extreme financial difficulty, delivers a copy of the most recent bill with a signed statement certifying that difficulty, clears everything billed before November 11th, and signs a payment plan at 133 percent of the levelized bill. A household that does nothing is outside the protection even during the season, which is what separates Mississippi from the states whose rule runs on the calendar alone.

Does the rule cover rural co-ops and city utilities in Mississippi?

What can a household in Mississippi already shut off do?

Who handles a winter disconnection dispute in Mississippi?

Mississippi Public Service Commission takes consumer complaints about regulated utilities, on 601-961-5434. Its own words: "Ratepayers shall have access through the Mississippi Public Service Commission to an independent administrative process that provides a simple, quick, and effective means of resolving complaints about service and bills from all electric, gas, water, and telecommunications service providers over which the Commission has appropriate jurisdiction."

Is there help with the heating bill in Mississippi?

A residential natural gas meter with its regulator and shutoff valve, mounted against pale house siding — A gas meter, which is the other half of the question and frequently the other half of the answer. A state rule can reach a regulated gas company and not reach the electric cooperative next door, or the reverse, so the protection you have often depends on which company sends which bill. “Gas meter”, RadRafe, Public domain

Winter shutoff rules in other states

Mississippi heating assistanceMississippi's energy assistance program, its season and its income test.Heating assistance by stateWhen each state opens applications, the income test, and where to apply.Heating oil and propane pricesWhat the fuel costs this week in the states that report it.Frozen pipe riskThe forecast that puts pipes at risk, by ZIP.Winter shutoff rules in every stateHow the fifty states differ on whether a window, a forecast or a filing decides it.

Mississippi read September 23, 2026 from Rules and Regulations Governing Public Utility Service, Mississippi Public Service Commission, linked above. A commission can order a company to do something its published rule does not require, and rules change between seasons, so the agency page is the one that governs. Every state is on the winter shutoff hub.