On June 24, 2026, a state law took effect that few Rhode Island ratepayers have ever had to think about: whether they can walk into a room, hand a person cash, and dispute a bill face to face. For years, they could not. Now the state's utility monopolies are legally obligated to give them that option.
Senate Bill S2429, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Frank A. Ciccone III, a Providence and Johnston Democrat, became law without the signature of Governor Dan McKee. It amends Rhode Island General Laws Chapter 39-2 by adding Section 39-2-29, which requires every "public utility" operating in the state — electric distribution, gas, water, telephone, and pipeline companies among them — to maintain a customer service operation physically located within Rhode Island.
The statute's language is spare, and that spareness matters. It mandates a customer service operation located within the state — a single in-state facility satisfies the requirement. It does not dictate how many offices a utility must open, nor where. A company such as Rhode Island Energy, which serves roughly 500,000 electric and gas customers, could comply by opening one office in Providence and leaving a resident in Westerly, Woonsocket, or New Shoreham to drive across the state to reach it. For the elderly, low-income, and unbanked ratepayers the sponsors say they are protecting, a distant office can be nearly as unreachable as a phone menu.
The bill moved quickly. The Senate passed it on June 4, 2026, the House concurred on June 8, and McKee — who has publicly attacked Rhode Island Energy's proposed rate hikes while declining to certify this particular mandate with his signature — let it lapse into law on June 24.
Rhode Island Energy operates no walk-in customer center in the state. A ratepayer who travels to its headquarters at 280 Melrose Street in Providence, or to its operations depot in Exeter, will find administrative offices and utility trucks, not a service counter. Every customer interaction has been pushed to online portals, automated phone lines, and third-party cash agents such as Western Union outlets inside pharmacies and supermarkets — agents that accept payments but cannot resolve billing disputes or set up low-income protection plans.
That arrangement grew strained after Pennsylvania-based PPL Corporation acquired the Narragansett Electric Company for $3.8 billion in May 2022 and rebranded it Rhode Island Energy. In August 2024, the utility cut over to its own Customer Information System, a transition that produced missing bills, delayed net-metering credits, and a wave of complaints. The Division of Public Utilities and Carriers opened a billing inquiry, Docket No. 25-45-GE, and its consumer chief, Diana Moniz, filed sworn testimony on April 25, 2026, recommending the utility be forced to open a walk-in center.
Rather than await a ruling from the three-member Public Utilities Commission, the General Assembly wrote the requirement directly into law — stripping the regulators of discretion to side with the company.
Rhode Island Energy fought the mandate. In rebuttal testimony filed May 8, 2026, Kristin DeSousa, the utility's vice president of customer services, called a required walk-in facility "unnecessary, misaligned, or unsupported by the full record." She argued that real estate, staffing, security, and cash-handling operations carry "substantial and ongoing costs" that "would ultimately be borne by all customers" and would "exceed any potential benefit to the small subset of customers who prefer to make payments in person." Because utilities recover costs through regulated delivery charges, she warned, the expense would land in every ratepayer's monthly bill.
The sponsors framed the trade-off differently. "Attempts to lower costs and increase profits for utility companies should never take precedence over the needs of the customers," said Deputy Speaker Raymond A. Hull, a Providence Democrat who carried the House companion. Ciccone put it plainly: "We still live in a world where not everyone has the ability or desire to pay their utility bills online or by the mail."
The law arrived during a hard stretch for those very customers. Rhode Island Energy is seeking a two-year base rate increase of $65.9 million for electric and $114.7 million for gas, and in May 2026 the company sent out more than 50,000 warning disconnection notices. Where those offices will open, and how far Rhode Islanders will have to travel to reach them, the statute leaves entirely to the utilities.