A Colorado heating bill does not have to end in a shutoff
If a heating bill in Colorado has grown past what you can pay, or a disconnection notice has arrived, you have more options than the notice suggests. State rules give customers of the regulated utilities specific ways to stop a shutoff, and statewide programs may cap the bill at a share of income, pay a past-due balance, or rebate heating costs after the season ends.
Colorado does not run a calendar-based winter shutoff ban. Its protections are built differently — a weather rule, a payment plan right, a medical certificate — and they sit alongside the programs. This page covers both at the statewide level only. County programs and the funds run by individual utility companies have their own pages on this site, linked at the end.
When Colorado weather stops a disconnection
The regulated gas and electric utilities cannot disconnect a home on any day when the local National Weather Service forecast, taken between 6 and 9 in the morning, predicts a temperature of 32 degrees or lower at any point in the following 24 hours. A matching rule blocks electric shutoffs on days forecast to reach 95 degrees or higher. Disconnections are also barred outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Friday noon through Monday morning, around holidays, and when the past-due amount is under a small minimum set in the rules.
These rules come from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (website: https://puc.colorado.gov/) and apply to the utilities it fully regulates — Xcel Energy, Black Hills Energy's electric and gas companies, Atmos Energy, and Colorado Natural Gas. A municipal utility or a rural electric cooperative writes its own disconnection policy, so if your provider is one of those, ask it directly for that policy in writing.
Rights that stop a shutoff in any season
A shutoff notice in Colorado can be stopped under the rules themselves. Pay one tenth of the amount shown on the notice before the notice expires and agree to an installment plan for the rest, and the disconnection does not happen. The plan may spread the balance over as long as 12 months — up to 24 in extraordinary circumstances — and the utility cannot make budget billing a condition of getting one.
A medical route exists as well. If a physician, or a licensed practitioner working under one, certifies that losing service would be especially dangerous to the health or safety of anyone living in the home, the utility must hold off for 90 days from the date of the certificate. The certificate covers no more than 90 days in any 12-month period, it restores service that is already off, and the bills still need attention while it runs.
If service has already been disconnected, paying the amount on the notice, starting a payment plan and making its first payment, or presenting a medical certificate requires the utility to restore service within 24 hours, not counting weekends and holidays, and the utility must make its best effort to turn it back on the same day. A household receiving help from LEAP, a utility affordability program, or Energy Outreach Colorado — now or within the past year — cannot be charged a deposit for new or restored service.
Before any shutoff, the utility owes you warning: a late payment notice, then a written final notice at least 12 business days ahead, then an attempt to reach you in person or by phone the day before. If a utility is not following these rules, the Public Utilities Commission's consumer assistance line is (800) 456-0858, and the full rules and program list sit on the Public Utilities Commission's affordability page at https://puc.colorado.gov/affordability.
PIPP, a gas and electric bill capped at a share of income
For the months ahead rather than the current emergency, Colorado's main tool is the Percentage of Income Payment Plan. PIPP limits what a qualifying household pays for home natural gas and electricity to a small set share of its yearly income, applied as a fixed monthly benefit on the bill. The program exists at Xcel Energy, Black Hills Energy, Atmos Energy, and Colorado Natural Gas, and it is funded through the rates all customers pay, which is why the Public Utilities Commission oversees it.
There is no standalone PIPP form. Applying for LEAP, for Energy Outreach Colorado's bill payment assistance, or for weatherization refers a qualifying household to its utility's program automatically, and the utility makes the final decision using household income and energy usage. A household that does not qualify for those referral programs may still ask Energy Outreach Colorado to submit the referral directly.
Year-round emergency help from Energy Outreach Colorado
Energy Outreach Colorado is the statewide nonprofit whose entire job is home energy, and it covers the situations the rules above cannot: it takes applications all year, and being low on propane, wood, or another delivered fuel counts the same as a past-due utility bill, which matters because no shutoff rule reaches a fuel dealer. Its bill payment assistance may pay a past-due balance or a fuel delivery once per program year for an income-qualified household that pays its energy costs directly, through partner agencies in every part of the state.
The organization also runs the emergency heating system repair and replacement program and is the direct route into PIPP described above. Call (866) 432-8435 to find the agency serving your county, or start from the Energy Outreach Colorado help page at https://energyoutreach.org/get-help. The NHPB guide to Energy Outreach Colorado covers the organization in more detail.
LEAP during the cold months
LEAP is Colorado's federal heating assistance, open November 1 through April 30, and it pays a one-time benefit directly to whoever heats your home — a utility company, a propane dealer, or another fuel supplier. Enrollment carries more than the payment. The Public Utilities Commission states plainly that LEAP enrollment prevents disconnection, approval is the fastest route into the other assistance programs, and LEAP households may qualify for furnace repair or replacement in a heat emergency and for free weatherization after an energy audit.
Among other criteria, at least one member of the household must be a citizen or permanent legal resident. Who qualifies, what the benefit covers, and how to apply through PEAK or a county office are all in the NHPB guide to Colorado LEAP, furnace help, and weatherization.
The PTC Rebate for older Coloradans
Colorado's Property Tax, Rent, and Heat Rebate — the PTC Rebate — returns money each year to residents 65 and older, and to surviving spouses 58 and older, based on income and on what they paid toward property tax, rent, and heat. It comes from the Department of Revenue rather than the energy offices, LEAP benefits do not count as income for it, and a household may receive the rebate and LEAP or Energy Outreach Colorado help in the same year.
Applicants without a Social Security number or ITIN may apply using an alternate identification number the department issues, and free in-person application help is available at the department's Taxpayer Service Centers. Coloradans with disabilities under 65 claim a different benefit — the Disability Assistance Credit — by filing a Colorado income tax return, and a person who qualifies for both may take only one per year. The application and details are on the Department of Revenue's PTC Rebate page at https://tax.colorado.gov/PTC-rebate.
County programs, utility funds, and the rest of Colorado
Individual utilities run hardship funds, payment plans, and rate help of their own, and those are collected in the NHPB guide to Colorado utility and energy bill assistance. For help beyond energy — rent, food, medical costs, and programs organized county by county — the NHPB guide to assistance programs in Colorado covers the rest of the state's help.
Utility rules in Colorado are set by the Public Utilities Commission and can be revised, program funding rises and falls through the year, and income limits change annually. Confirm current terms with each utility, agency, or program before acting on anything here. This page is general information, not legal advice.
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