Low-Income Program Updates

Did you know that JPUD currently serves more than 1,000 households countywide through its Rate Reduction Program?

By Jean Pepper, JPUD Services Director

Rate reduction funding helps trim the energy burden for some of our community’s most at-risk residents.

Since its founding as a water utility, the PUD has offered a rate assistance program, which has expanded to include services like wastewater, electricity, and broadband while keeping pace with state and federal requirements.

In 2025, the total program costs for the electric division of the utility (including administrative overhead) reached approx $813,000. 

At the state legislative level, changes have been happening rapidly. RCW 19.405, The Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) set baseline targets for utilities to meet relating to greenhouse gas emissions and long-term funding requirements for assistance programs designed to reduce energy burden and create equitable access to the clean energy movement for low-income customers. You may not have heard of CETA, but it drives much of how utilities operate in our state with the goal of utilities offering carbon-neutral energy by 2030.

So, what does this mean for our utility? Previously, JPUD faced a $1.9M annual assistance program funding target by 2030 with increasing milestones from there to address an estimated $3.2M in excess energy burden for at-risk customers. That’s a heavy lift for the customer-owners of a small utility to support. 

Thankfully, the new legislation enacted in HB 1903 allows more flexibility, enabling JPUD to gradually increase efforts in program rollout to minimize the budget and rate impact. 

So, we can phase-in our assistance program changes, but how to get it done? Through power saving measures like expanding energy efficiency and weatherization efforts, alongside transitioning homes to high-efficiency heat pump systems. 

Our goal is to make energy efficiency funds available for projects to help the most at-risk customers. This, in addition to transitioning to a percentage-based discount from our current flat rate bill credit structure, will more equitably reduce the energy burden-to-income ratio for our neighbors.  

How does the flat rate and percentage models compare? The PUD currently provides a set $71.53 flat rate for each low-income qualified household for electric billing each month. The new model would base the support amount off of household gross income, with 30% discount at the top end. This helps us as a utility identify the homes with the highest energy burden (the highest amount of income that goes straight to paying a power bill) and ensure the household receives assistance levels that are meaningful to them and their circumstances. Our team can then work with those most at-risk households to identify energy-saving solutions for their home and funding availability. The goal: Help our neighbors save on monthly energy bills and help them find long-term relief, safety, and comfort, while reducing the overall assistance program cost all rate payers support.

There are a few steps we must go through to implement this new model, starting with a rate study to establish how changes will impact the budget. The next step involves commissioner input and a formal rollout of the updated program ideally in 2027.

Utility bill support for our neighbors is something that typically goes unseen but is something that impacts all rate payers. Our goal is to create a fair and equitable program that helps our customers lower their energy burden.

Please visit: jeffpud.org/assistance to learn more.