ALBANY - Service cutoffs for New York's residential electric and gas customers jumped by almost 19 percent in 2008, but eased in January as deep cold triggered some “no-cutoff” protections. The state's major utilities reported terminating 329,817 residential accounts for nonpayment, up from 277,771 in 2007. The jump came during a year that saw a dramatic spike in fuel prices tamed only after an economic meltdown.

An Associated Press investigation this fall found termination rates increasing around the country. The year-end numbers are well above recent annual averages, according to state Public Service Commission statistics.

“That's huge,” said Gerald Norlander, executive director of the Public Utility Law Project, an advocacy group. “And the amount of chaos that causes in the lives of people whose power is shut off is a terrible waste.”

Norlander, a frequent critic of state energy policy, said the numbers point to an underlying “affordability problem” for gas and electric service in New York, which has among the highest residential rates in the nation.

The numbers are based on figures provided by the ten major utilities statewide, including Consolidated Edison in New York City, National Grid upstate and the Long Island Power Authority. The numbers do not include municipal utilities.

Utilities cut power or heat only as a last resort, and generally only after customers have run up hundreds of dollars in past-due bills. New York also has additional cold-weather protections that kick in every Nov. 1, which significantly reduce winter cutoffs. Cutoff numbers were up in December compared to a year earlier. But they dropped 32 percent last month compared to January 2008. The cold snap last month likely played a role in the decrease, since some utilities won't shut off service when temperatures fall below certain thresholds.

The number of accounts cut off by National Grid, for instance, dropped from 6,312 in October to only 4 in December. That's the month the utility raised its no-cutoff threshold from 20 degree to 32 degrees, according to utility spokesman Patrick Stella.

Stella said the increase in government heating aid this winter probably also played a role in the lower cutoff number.

While special cold-weather protections run through April 15, Norlander suspects more customers will be cut off this spring given the high state unemployment rate and gloomy near-term economic picture.

“If people were at the breaking point before and someone gets laid off,” Norlander said, “something has to give.”