U.S. News
Phoenix Utility Pays $7M After 82-Year-Old Dies From Heat Shutoff
By Mike Harper · April 22, 2026
An 82-year-old Arizona woman is dead. Her power was cut off on a 99-degree day over a $423 unpaid bill. Two years later, the state forced her utility to pay $7 million and change its practices before another summer arrives.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the settlement with Arizona Public Service Company on April 15, resolving allegations that APS violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act through its disconnection practices during extreme heat. The settlement is the direct result of the May 2024 death of Katherine Korman, a Sun City resident whose electricity was remotely disconnected for nonpayment. She was found dead in her home six days later, with heat stress listed as a contributing factor by the medical examiner.
What made Korman’s death particularly damning for APS: the utility had ended its own voluntary policy of not disconnecting customers when temperatures reached 95 degrees or above — just three days before her power was cut.
Her son Jonathan Korman said his mother didn’t even know the bill wasn’t being paid.
“She had the money. She thought the bill was being paid. And we think she simply did not know until they cut her off,” he said.
Under the terms of the settlement, APS will pay $2.75 million into Arizona’s Consumer Protection Fund, provide $1 million in direct bill credits to customers currently at risk of disconnection before September 1, and spend an additional $3.4 million on consumer protection improvements and outreach. All payments must come from APS shareholders — not ratepayers.
The most significant change going forward is policy-based: APS must permanently stop disconnecting customers for nonpayment whenever the forecast high temperature at a customer’s location is 95 degrees or above, or 32 degrees or below. The existing calendar-based moratorium — which already prohibited shutoffs from June 1 through October 15 — will remain in place alongside the new temperature-based rule.
“No Arizonan should be put at risk because they cannot afford their electric bill,” Mayes said. “This settlement ensures that APS will no longer disconnect power based on the date on the calendar alone — if temperatures are dangerous, the power stays on.”
APS pushed back on the framing while accepting the terms.
“APS rejects the Attorney General’s assertions regarding our existing disconnection policies and customer communications, which already meet or exceed all applicable state laws and regulations,” the utility said in a statement.
Mayes is now calling on all Arizona utilities — including SRP, Tucson Electric Power, and rural cooperatives — to voluntarily adopt similar temperature-based disconnection rules. She warned that those that don’t could face similar legal action.
“I believe it’s only a matter of time before a heat-related death occurs at TEP and UniSource and SRP,” Mayes said, “because their policies, in some cases, are even worse than APS was.”
The stakes are not abstract. Phoenix broke 15 daily temperature records in March 2026, and the first heat-related death of the year was recorded by Maricopa County on April 10 — before summer has technically arrived. For the roughly 1.3 million households APS serves across Arizona, the new rules are in place just in time.