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Home My WebLink About12 Temporary COVID-19 Customer Relief ProgramZ1Wq TRUCKEE DONNER Public Utility District ACTION To: Board of Directors From: Steven Poncelet Date: April 15, 2020 Subject: Consideration of Temporary Programs for COVID-19 Customer Relief 1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD The District continues to respond to the COVID-19 crisis to protect our employees and customers and ensure continuity of electric and water services. There may be opportunities for the District to help customers who are experiencing a financial hardship due to COVID-19 which would involve reallocation of budget funds, changes to existing programs, and/or new programs and require Board approval. 2. HISTORY The District has a long history of serving customers with innovative conservation programs to help them save energy, water, and money. These programs have been historically funded for the Electric Utility by a combination of Public Benefit charges and rates and for the Water Utility by rates. The Electric Utility's Public Benefit charge has been in place for well over a decade and was mandated by SB 1037 which requires that the District charge each customer 2.85% additional on their bill. The Public Benefit funds must then be used in one our four areas as mandated by the California Energy Commission (CEC): Energy Efficiency; Low Income; Renewables, and Research & Development. The District has invested in all four areas but has emphasized maximizing the return of investment to our customer from these funds by focusing on cost-effective energy efficiency programs along with serving those in need. This includes the District's current Payment Assistance Program which is an income -qualified program designed to help customers in need. The program is administered under a District contract with the Sierra Community House (formerly Family Resource Center of Truckee) who does the intake and qualification work for the District. The program provides qualifying District primary residential customers with an annual credit on their bill, equal to their largest total TDPUD bill in the last 12-months, and requires that they complete a free District Residential Energy Survey (RES). The existing program qualification guidelines include traditional Nevada County low-income levels along with a demonstrated loss of 25% of income category. This program has existed for over a decade and has been very successful. The District's commercial customers (i.e. mostly small businesses), do not qualify for low-income programs under the CEC mandates and have been served exclusively with energy efficiency programs. The FY20 Conservation Department budget for the Electric Utility is $946,279 with $54,100 budgeted to the Payment Assistance Program. The FY20 Conservation Department budget for the Water Utility is $100,659 with a small portion going to the Payment Assistance Program. 3. NEW INFORMATION The COVID-19 crisis is intensifying and the new standards of stay at home and suspension of all non -essential business appears to be here for now with an unknown duration. The impacts to the local economy have been severe with local businesses closed temporarily, employees out of work, and increasing financial hardships. Claims for unemployment have jumped and are expected to continue to rise. In response, the District has suspended shut-off's for non-payment and are working with an increasing number of customers in need of assistance. There was a strong desire by staff to find ways to serve both our residential and our commercial/small business customers who are suffering financially due to COVID-19. While we are exploring a couple of different options to serve businesses in need, there are some obstacles and challenges that would need to be overcome. This includes current CEC restrictions on the use of Public Benefit funds that restrict businesses from low-income assistance along with the District's need to develop a totally new program for businesses that, to date, is not defined. Staff will continue to investigate opportunities to help business in need. There are, however, some meaningful and immediate opportunities to serve residential customers in need that staff are proposing for Board consideration. The overall concept would be to both expand the participation in the District's existing Payment Assistance Program and temporarily increase the payment assistance for current program participants and new sign-ups due to COVID-19 financial hardship. The temporary COVID-19 Customer Relief Program details include: • An effort to increase participation in the existing Payment Assistance Program through Sierra Community House (SCH). Staff has talked with SCH's leadership and they are prepared for an expansion under the current program rules (i.e. using the 25% document loss of income qualification for those who can show application for State or Federal Unemployment). You must still be a primary resident to qualify for the District's Payment Assistance Program (P10 rate class for Electric customers). The District had previously suspended the Residential Energy Survey (RES) portion of this program due to COVID-19 restrictions but will attempt to complete these when RES is reinstated; • The current SCH contract is for FY20 for an amount not to exceed $5,000 with $3,000 fixed expense plus $50 per customer that completes the requirements of the Payment Assistance Program. Should the District be successful with these temporary changes to the program, it is estimated that the SCH contract would need to be amended to an amount not to exceed $35,000; • Staff reviewed the FY20 Conservation budgets for the Electric and Water Utilities and have estimated that there is the potential to reallocate $275,000 to the Payment Assistance Program from a combination of program and labor savings. It is important to note that many District conservation programs are suspended due to COVID-19 and the on -going programs, such as rebates, are projected to slow down severely due to the shelter in place and other restrictions. The $275.000 includes: $250.000 from the Electric Utilitv comprising of $100,000 in savings on the Energy Efficiency budget plus $150,000 savings in the Renewables budget; plus $25,000 from the Water Utility due to savings in conservation budget; Staff are also proposing that the Payment Assistance Program bill credit be temporarily increased from one months bill to two months bill credit. There would be a 12-month `look -back' for customer who are already in the program where they would get a second credit. All new applicants would get the two months during the temporary period. At the end of the crisis, all would revert back to the 1-month credit once a year and all who came in under the loss of 25% of income would need to reapply for future assistance; and Should the Board approve these temporary changes, they would become effective immediately and would remain in effect for 30 days after California (or locally) has ended shelter in place OR until the reallocated budget funds are expended ($55,000 existing plus $275,000 reallocated for a total of $330,000 for FY20). If you assume the average customer two month bill credit is $400 total, plus $50 for SCH, plus $150 for RES, the temporary COVID-19 Customer Relief Program - based on the $330,000 total budget - could serve 550+ customers in need. This is an order of magnitude more than the program does today. Should the Board reallocate conservation funds as proposed to help customers in need, this will have an impact on the District's overall energy efficiency/conservation results. Some of this will be unavoidable anyway, and the District needs a strong customer bases and economy to achieve long-term conservation results. Staff believes that this is an investment to that end. 4. FISCAL IMPACT The proposed District temporary COVID-19 Customer Relief Program would reallocate $275,000 of the FY20 Board approved Conservation budget to the Payment Assistance Program. Sufficient funds exist for this reallocation. 5. RECOMMENDATION 1. Approve the budget amendment and reallocation of $275,000 and temporary COVID-19 Customer Relief Program as presented in this staff report. 2. Authorize the General Manager to amend the FY20 Sierra Community House contract to a new amount not to exceed $35,000. Steven Poncelet Public Information & Strategic Affairs Directoi Michael D. Holley General Manager