Help With Your Electric Bill in Virginia: Energy Assistance Program

Three separate windows, published as rules rather than dates. FUEL ASSISTANCE (the heating grant): from the second Tuesday in October to the second Friday in November - for 2026 that works out as October 13 to November 13, 2026, so it opens in about a month. Eligibility notices go out in late December and vendor authorisations in December. CRISIS ASSISTANCE: November 1 to March 15 for a one-time heat security deposit and/or heating equipment repair or purchase; and from the first workday in January to March 15 for buying heating fuel or paying the heat utility bill. COOLING ASSISTANCE: June 15 to August 15 (the EAP web page says August 17) - closed now. All three are subject to funds being available.

Dates move every year and most states stop taking applications when the money runs out, not on the closing date. Checked Sep 10, 2026 — confirm before you count on it.

Crisis Assistance, for a household with a heating emergency and no other resource - no heat, a cut-off notice, or unsafe equipment. Two sub-windows: November 1 to March 15 for equipment repair/replacement, supplemental equipment or a heat security deposit; first workday in January to March 15 for fuel and the primary heat utility bill. Same three channels: CommonHelp online, 855-635-4370, or your local DSS. Right now (September) the Crisis window is shut - it reopens November 1.

Online through CommonHelp at https://commonhelp.virginia.gov, by phone to the Enterprise Customer Service Center at 855-635-4370 (Mon-Fri 7 a.m.-6 p.m.), or on paper at your local department of social services. Separate PDF forms exist for Fuel, Crisis and Cooling, in English and Spanish.

Virginia does not publish the benefit amounts on the page we read. It is paid to the utility, not to you, and depends on household size, income and fuel type.

Not itemised on the pages read; the Complete EAP Manual PDF is linked from the EAP page. Applying you must show responsibility for the heating or cooling cost and household gross income.

Temperature-triggered, not calendar-based. Code of Virginia section 56-245.1:3 (regulated utilities) and section 15.2-2121.2 (municipal utilities) bar an electric utility from disconnecting a residential customer for non-payment when the forecast low is at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, or the forecast high is at or above 92 degrees Fahrenheit, within the 24 hours after the scheduled disconnection. It covers electric companies, natural gas suppliers and water/wastewater providers subject to State Corporation Commission regulation.

This comes from the Virginia utility commission, not from the energy assistance programme — they are different offices and only one of them publishes it.

Virginia also runs a Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) at dss.virginia.gov/relief/pipp for ongoing bill affordability, and Weatherization through DHCD. The EAP web page and the official EAP Information Sheet PDF disagree on the Cooling close date (August 17 vs August 15).

In most states the same office runs SNAP food benefits, and receiving one often makes the other automatic or faster. SNAP in Virginia →