© Bill Montgomery, HC Staff / Houston Chronicle The Public Utility Commission launched a new emergency program last month to help financially struggling Texans pay their electricity bills and avoid disconnections but many consumers can't sign up.

The Texas Public Utility Commission launched a program last month to help financially struggling residents pay electricity bills, but many consumers haven't been able to get through to their providers and have had power disconnected.

Some residential customers are waiting up to three hours on the phone with their retail electric providers to request extra time to pay bills, commission Chairman DeAnn Walker said at the commission's public meeting Friday. They're not receiving calls after leaving messages and they're being disconnected while waiting for a representative, she said.

The commission's program pays a substantial part of the power bills of residents who have lost their jobs as a result of the cononavirus pandemic. The program covers Texans who buy electricity in the deregulated market, an area that includes Houston and Dallas.

The program is funded by a special charge of 0.033 cents per kilowatt hour added to electricity bills, adding about 40 cents for residential customers who use 1,200 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.

The program, which expires in July, suspends disconnections for nonpayment for eligible residents who sign up for payment plans with their electricity providers.

But consumers say retail electric providers are refusing to put them on deferred payment plans, Walker said Friday. Instead, she said, they're being offered only 10-day extensions to pay bills.

Eligible customers should be able to sign up for deferred payment plans, she said.

"I would like everyone to step back and try to work through this for the good of the state," Walker said.

Some retail electric providers disputed the claims that they are slow to answer telephone calls from customers. British-owned Direct Energy, the third-largest seller of electricity in Texas, said its call center has had an average answer time of less than 10 seconds over the past two weeks.

The commission also halted late-payment fees until May 14 to help customers pay their electricity bills while facing economic difficulties related to the pandemic, Walker said.

"I probably shouldn't say this but if there are (retail electric providers) that have set their business models on being in this business based on receiving late fees," she said, "you've got a problem with your business model."