Program to pay bills of customers under financial hardship; coordination with other entities providing assistance to lower-income customers.

1. A utility shall provide a program for the payment of bills for customers who have difficulty paying their bills because of financial hardship. 2. A utility shall coordinate with governmental agencies and other entities that provide energy assistance to lower-income customers and with governmental agencies and other entities that provide services for weatherization and energy efficiency to lower-income customers to enable such agencies and entities to administer efficiently and effectively their assistance and services to lower-income customers. 3. A utility shall disclose to the agencies and entities described in subsection 2 information concerning the energy use of a customer, if the customer signs a release authorizing the utility to disclose that information.