Update: TID board OKs power rate increases. Here are 10 discounts and conservation rebates
Homes will pay about 18% more for Turlock Irrigation District power by 2027, following a vote by its board.
The upside: TID also is boosting its low-income discount and several of the rebates for conservation measures.
The board voted 4-0 on Tuesday, Nov. 26, for the new rates. Director Rob Santos was absent.
The average residential bill will go from about $145 now to about $170 over three years. The increases will be 5.6% at the start of both 2025 and 2026 and 5.5% in the final year. With compounding, the total rise is 17.6%.
Business accounts will get slightly smaller hikes. Both they and the residential customers will be somewhat less costly than the neighboring Modesto Irrigation District. Both are far less than Pacific Gas & Electric Co., an investor-owned outfit dealing with massive wildfire and other costs.
Incoming board member endorses rates
TID’s new rates won support at the boardroom podium from Becky Hackler Arellano, who will succeed Santos next month. She added that the district should try to expand energy-saving programs in 2025.
“Nobody wants to raise rates, especially in these times,” Arellano said, “but I think you have done a very thorough job of explaining why you need to do it.”
Much of the extra money will cover wholesale power costs, the TID staff said in October. The chief source is natural gas at TID’s own plants and across the Western market.
The district also faces a state mandate for more solar, wind and other sources that do not worsen climate change. And it must maintain its long-distance transmission lines and the smaller wires serving its customers.
TID serves about 240,000 people from south Modesto to north Merced County and from the La Grange area to west of Patterson.
What are some of the discounts, rebates?
The rate vote included a larger discount for low-income customers, effective in January 2025. That also is the effective date for already approved rebate increases. A sampling of how to save:
- The low-income discount now averages $22.61 a month per customer. It will be $26.86 next year, $27.51 in 2026 and $30 in 2027. Details on how to qualify are at www.tid.org.
- The rebate for an efficient clothes washer will rise from $35 to $50. This and other appliances must bear the Energy Star label.
- TID has new $50 rebates for both dishwashers and clothes dryers.
- The refrigerator rebate will rise from $35 to $50.
- Central air conditioners have been $250 to $500. All of them will now be $500.
- Electric water heaters will go from $350 to $500.
- Heat pumps, increasing from $500 to $1,000. These devices can either warm or cool a home by moving air between inside and outside.
- Shade trees, rising from $20 to $50. They are a low-tech, and pleasant, way of dealing with the summer sun.
- Rooftop solar panels can reduce bills, especially during summer, though installation is a major cost.
- Low-income customers can get help with insulation, windows, water heaters and other measures.
TID is ending its incentives for electric vehicles and their charging devices as of Dec. 31. Details on this program, and on other home and business rebates, are at www.tid.org.
This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 7:52 AM.
