Teri Qualley expects to lose her gas service soon.

Qualley, of Osseo, earned about $55,000 last year between two jobs, but with two mortgages and a son in college, she fell behind on her CenterPoint bills. She just tried to enroll in the utility's budget plan for $144 a month. But CenterPoint said she had to start by sending $747 -- her unpaid winter balance.

"I can only afford $150 a month, and a lot of people can't even afford that, so I figure there are tons of people getting their gas turned off," Qualley said.

Hundreds of metro region residents a day are losing their gas or electricity as utilities step up efforts to collect delinquent bills now that winter is over.

This year, as a sputtering economy and rising oil prices pinch budgets, even some middle-class homeowners have been unable to keep up.

"We're seeing middle-class families who were doing fine, working and paying their bills," said Catherine Fair, director of energy assistance at the Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington counties.

"Then there was a layoff or a medical leave for one person, and it put them in a downward spiral," Fair said.

Nearly 400,000 energy customers owe a total of $117.5 million in home gas and electricity bills to CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy, the companies say. Xcel Energy estimates it is now disconnecting 400 to 450 homes a day around the state. A CenterPoint spokesperson declined to give a count.

The risks for families without energy don't end in spring, Fair said. In many parts of the state, homes still need heating.

"And as for electricity, that's your refrigerator, your fan, your ability to cook food for your family," Fair said. "How can you have milk for your children all summer long?"

The state's major utilities, including Xcel and CenterPoint, have been taking a tougher stance on unpaid bills. For the first time, CenterPoint started disconnecting gas customers during the winter, including 1,000 since January.

And this year, Xcel is requiring its gas and electricity customers to get current -- pay any bills more than 60 days old -- before it will talk about arranging a payment plan.

The utilities argue they have to get aggressive, because unpaid balances drive up rates for paying customers. They don't want customers going into next winter already behind in their bills.

Minnesota's Cold Weather Rule, in effect Oct. 15 to April 15, requires utilities to offer customers billing plans based on their ability to pay. For very low-income family, the rule caps heating bills at 10 percent of their income. It does allow the utilities to shut off customers in the winter who either make no payment plan or don't keep up with it -- as CenterPoint did this year.

Any unpaid balances don't go away, however; they pile up until spring, said Tracy Smetana, a consumer mediator at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. And after April 15, "the company can decide its terms, and they can ask for payment in full," Smetana said.

On April 15 this year, 193,000 customers owed Xcel $38.5 million, said credit policy manager Patrick Boland. The numbers aren't much different than in the past three years, Boland said: It's usually 175,000 to 200,000 customers owing between $35 million and $41 million.

This spring, CenterPoint had more than 197,000 customer accounts with $79 million in arrears, spokeswoman Becca Virden said. That's down from $106 million last year, Virden said.

Aid programs strapped

This year, Minnesota energy assistance agencies had $104 million in federal money to distribute to Minnesotans who earn less than 50 percent of the state's median income. Fair's agency got $9.1 million of that to distribute but, as was the case at many other agencies, her money ran out before the applicants did.

She didn't have enough to help a St. Paul couple, both teachers, whose power was cut off last Friday -- their son's birthday. Or a 75-year-old nurse who still works part time and who got a $1,036.59 bill from Xcel on Monday.

The major remaining sources of assistance are the utilities themselves: CenterPoint's Gas Affordability Program and Xcel's Power On.

But only Minnesotans already receiving federal assistance can apply to those funds, said Pam Marshall, director of St. Paul-based Energy Cents, an advocacy and assistance agency.

And this year, the federal aid reached only about one-fourth of the 425,000 Minnesota households who are eligible, Marshall said.

H.J. Cummins • 612-673-4671