Deployment Stops the Shutoff — Gas and Electric, Through Deployment Plus 90 Days
Where one of the heads of household is a service member deployed for military service, a rate-regulated gas or electric utility cannot shut the service off during the deployment or within 90 days after it ends. The catch is entirely procedural and entirely decisive: the utility must be told about the deployment BEFORE the disconnection. Nobody checks for you.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
Where one of the heads of household is a service member deployed for military service, a rate-regulated gas or electric utility cannot shut the service off during the deployment or within 90 days after it ends. The catch is entirely procedural and entirely decisive: the utility must be told about the deployment BEFORE the disconnection. Nobody checks for you.
What it's worth: No gas or electric disconnection during deployment, plus 90 days after
- This is a shield against disconnection, not a discount and not a forgiveness. The rule says in terms that the household still owes the utility for service used during the protected period.
- The protection reaches rate-regulated gas and electric utilities under the commission's jurisdiction. A municipal utility or a rural electric cooperative may sit outside those chapters, so ask which kind supplies the house.
Who is entitled to it
- You have served, so this is the protection to know about for any future call-up.
- The rule protects the residence where a head of household is deployed, which is a household protection rather than a personal one.
- You are in this state.
Not sure whether that describes you?
Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.
How to claim it
Deadline: Tell the utility before any disconnection, not after- 1Tell the utility in writing as soon as orders arrive, and keep the copy. Both the gas rule and the electric rule condition the protection on the utility being informed of the deployment PRIOR to disconnection. A call made after the meter is pulled is too late by the rule's own words.
- 2Name the head of household clearly. The rule protects the residence where ONE OF THE HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD is a service member deployed for military service, so a spouse remaining at home is the person who normally sends the notice and should say who is deployed and from when.
- 3Ask the utility to confirm the protection and the end date in writing, counting the 90 days from the end of deployment rather than from the return home.
- 4Keep paying what you can, because the debt keeps running. The rule is explicit that you will still owe for service used during the protected period, and a large balance landing on day 91 is the ordinary failure here.
- 5Stack it with the separate winter protection where it applies. Being certified eligible for energy assistance prevents disconnection from November 1 through April 1 — a different route, on different facts, that can cover a household the deployment rule does not.
- 6Take a dispute to the Iowa Utilities Commission rather than arguing at the counter. The disconnection rules are the commission's and the commission is where they are enforced.
- Form
- No prescribed form — written notice to the utility naming the deployment
- File with
- Your gas or electric utility, with the Iowa Utilities Commission behind it
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
Sources
- authority · regulation199 IAC 20.4 — electric service, customer rights and responsibilities: no shutoff where one of the heads of household is a service member deployed for military service, during deployment or within 90 days after it ends, provided the utility is informed prior to disconnection
- operating · regulation199 IAC 19.4 — gas service, customer rights and responsibilities: the same deployment protection in the same terms, plus the 12-day written disconnection notice and the November 1 to April 1 protection for households certified eligible for energy assistance
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