AUGUSTA — The Public Utilities Commission on Monday gave one of the state’s largest power companies permission to shut off electricity this winter to people who make special payment arrangements and then don’t pay their bills.

The PUC granted Central Maine Power Co. a one-year exemption from its rule requiring all power companies to seek permission before cutting off service to customers in the winter for non-payment of bills.

The state’s other two largest utilities, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. and Maine Public Service Co., have each filed similar requests asking to be exempted from that rule. PUC officials have said they expect to deal with those requests by mid-October.

Under current rules, utilities must first receive permission from the PUC’s consumer assistance division to shut off a customer’s electricity for non-payment from Nov. 15 to April 15.

Central Maine Power received permission Monday to shut off a customer’s power, without PUC permission, during those months if the customer has agreed to a special payment plan and then still doesn’t pay.

CMP proposed the change as a way of forcing low-income customers who can’t pay their bills in the winter to get help from welfare assistance earlier, said Edna Smith, the utility’s manager of customer service operations.

The Maine Municipal Association and the state Public Advocate’s Office, which represents consumers’ interests before the PUC, both supported the proposal.

“Under existing practices, general assistance is frequently not sought when it ought to be,” the PUC said in a statement announcing its decision. “Instead, low-income customers have entered into special deferral payment arrangements which result in very large unpaid balances at winter’s end.

“General assistance offices are generally unable to respond to large past due bills which have accumulated over several months. By requiring customers to seek general assistance resources at an earlier point in the winter, it is expected that fewer disconnections will occur in the long run.

“At present, many such disconnections are occurring in the late summer and early fall months,” the PUC said.

Before the PUC’s decision, Smith of Central Maine Power stressed that the utility wasn’t asking for permission to disconnect anyone who doesn’t pay their bill on time.