PROVIDENCE – National Grid announced that it is amenable to extending the winter utility-termination moratorium until May 1.

In a letter to the R.I. Public Utilities Commission, National Grid President Timothy F. Horan wrote that the company “supports the requested extension of the … moratorium period” with respect to protected-status customers.

The company would continue to send out termination notices. National Grid would not terminate service for those customers prior to May 1.

In a letter to the Public Utilities Commission at the end of March, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed called for the extension of the moratorium, saying that “there is strong evidence that more Rhode Island households than in past years are struggling to pay their utility bills.”

The utility company’s winter-shutoff moratorium currently extends from November through the middle of April.

This is a second year that National Grid has supported a moratorium extension. Last year, the company also agreed to the extension, partly as a result of a written request from the two legislative leaders. •