The foreshadowing of a Turlock Irrigation District (TID) electric rate increase as discussed at Thursday’s Local Government Night public forum in Turlock hosted by Stanislaus County Supervisor Vito Chiesa.

TID supplies electricity for Ceres and Hughson residents as well as Turlock while Modesto Irrigation provides power for Modesto.

TID Board Director Michael Frantz talked about how the TID Board of Directors is always trying to find the balance between reliability and affordability.

“We spent a lot of time talking about reliability, because we also have a lot of aging infrastructure,” said Frantz, a Hickman tree grower. “We talk about Don Pedro being paid for, but it’s also worn out. We’re replacing all four of the large generation plants in that dam over the next four years. The cost to do so is nearly $300 million of borrowed money. So those are significant investments that we are making for the next generation of people who live in this wonderful community. But we’re balancing reliability with affordability; always trying to figure out, we could do this, but what’s it going to cost? We can do this, but what will happen if we don’t? You know, people brag about Amazon having next day deliveries, but at TID, the expectation is really high. We need our power on all the time, right now, and if the power goes down, people get upset right away. And so we put a premium on reliability, but it costs money to do so.”

Along with the updates needed to the Don Pedro generation plants, TID is also facing a state mandate to be carbon free by 2024 and still working on all the things needed to secure its relicensing to operate Don Pedro. All of that requires funding and, according to Frantz, TID has not raised its electric rates since 2015.

“It’s been almost a decade since we raised rates. As a point of reference, in that same time frame PG&E has raised rates over 120% — over a doubling of rates in the same time frame. But we have substantial capital needs, so I don’t want to mince any words. Our rates are going to go up. I don’t know exactly when and how much, but our rates are headed up, hopefully in a small and acceptable manner. That’s typically how we’ve done it. Last time we went up three percent I know we’ve been having discussions, and we know additional capital needs are there. I already said we’re spending $300 million on our power plants, so we will be coming to you at some point in the near future for additional rates, but we’re going to do our best to keep them to a nominal number,” said Frantz.