President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during a prime-time address from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 11, 2021, in Washington.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission on Thursday approved the lifting of its year-old moratorium preventing utilities from terminating service to all non-paying customers, adopted as Gov. Tom Wolf began ordering shutdowns to fight the spreading coronavirus.

The moratorium will lift April 1 for the state’s lower-income utility customers, but the commission also required all of its regulated utilities — including electric, natural gas, water, sewer and telephone — to give them additional payment plan options.

Utilities asked as far back as last June at least to lift the moratorium, but Democrats on the five-member panel resisted until this month, as hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid became available to renters that can be used to help pay utility bills.