Monterey Bay Community Power defers payments in response to COVID-19

Information provided by Monterey Bay Community Power.

In an April 14press release, Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) said it plans to defer electric generation charges by 50% for the months of May and June in an effort to provide immediate financial relief to every MBCP customer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Total customer bill deferment during May and June is estimated at $22.4 million, according to the release.

In addition to MBCP’s financial response, the community choice energy agency has suspended its non-payment policy until further notice and will continue to support customers through its call center and share resources through its website, newsletter and social media platforms.

Providing this temporary but sweeping rate reduction will ease the burden on residents and businesses at a time when they need it most,” said CEO Tom Habashi.

Monterey Bay Community Power moved to bring this deferred payment rate change to customers by May 1 after receiving board support from its Operations Board on April 8 and holding a special policy board meeting on April 13, when the staff recommendation was approved with unanimous support. At both meetings, MBCP shared key contributing factors such as providing immediate financial assistance to MBCP communities and all customers, boosting the local economy while avoiding any disparate impacts on various customer classes, and being logistically simple to implement, the release said.

Beginning May 1, through June 30, MBCP will defer 50% of its electric generation charges. Overall, MBCP residential customers will see close to $6.44 million in deferred charges, commercial customers will experience $10.95 million in cumulative deferred charges and agriculture customers, collectively, will see approximately $5.03 million of deferred charges, the release said.

To recover part of the deferred generation charges, Monterey Bay Community Power will decrease its energy programs funding from 4% to 3% of revenue through 2021. To continue delivering cost-savings to customers while recouping a portion of the $22 million rate reduction cost, MBCP will adjust its electric generation rates to 2% below PG&E’s for the months of July through December 2020, the release said.