The IID’s recent approval of an electricity rate increase has sparked frustration among local officials and residents, with many calling the process rushed and questioning its long-term impact on affordability.
While the IID maintains the hike was necessary to address decades of neglected infrastructure, critics argue the district failed to properly inform the public before implementing the change.
The new rates, which take effect in February, will see the residential base rate jump from 11.69 cents per kilowatt-hour to 19.76 cents — which appears upon first glance to reflect a 69 percent increase. However, the IID has emphasized that when accounting for the now-eliminated Energy Cost Adjustment (ECA), the actual systemwide increase amounts to 8.5 percent, with the residential base rate only increasing by 7.74 percent in 2025.
Even so, local leaders remain unconvinced, arguing that the hike places an undue burden on struggling households.
Breaking Down the Numbers: What Rate Hike Means for Residents
One of the most contentious aspects of the IID’s rate hike has been how the increase has been communicated. The 69 percent base rate jump raised alarms, though the IID has stressed that much of that figure comes from absorbing the ECA charge, the cost to provide power which previously fluctuated with energy market conditions.
“This is a little bit misleading, currently,” said the IID’s Chief Financial Officer Belen Valenzuela at the Jan. 21 IID Board of Directors meeting where the new rates were solidified. “And it’s not meant to be. Currently, the base rate is 11.69 cents per kilowatt-hour. But, what we were proposing to do is roll in those base ECA factors cost into this. So if you were to look at it that way, that’s that 18.34 cents that we were talking about.”
According to information provided by the IID’s Senior Public Affairs Coordinator Stella Jimenez, the actual increase in cost per kilowatt-hour for the average residential customer in 2025 will be about 1.42 cents, when you factor in the ECA costs to the base rate.
Before the rate update, the ECA accounted for roughly 36 percent of a customer’s bill, averaging out to a base rate of 18.34 cents per kilowatt hour. (For reference, the new base rate is 19.76 cents per kilowatt-hour — an increase of 1.42 cents.) Going forward, fuel and power costs will be included in the base rate, with the IID expecting the ECA to remain at zero for at least three years. Based on a typical usage of 1,070 KwH per billing cycle per household, customers can expect their bill to increase from $196.24 to $211.43 on average, with no ECA fluctuations.
But some officials question whether this change will truly protect customers from future spikes. Calexico Mayor Diana Nuricumbo raised concerns about what will happen when energy demand increases in the coming years.
“The ECA is a fee determined by the market cost, and it is safe to assume that in 2028, with more vehicles being electric, the demand will be higher than today’s? Therefore it should be expected that in 2028, the actual rate increase will actually be in the 30-40 percentile,” she said.
The IID, however, has maintained that the new rate-setting process will prevent another sharp increase. IID Board of Directors Vice Chair JB Hamby explained that historically, the IID let the ECA climb instead of making gradual adjustments to the base rate, which led to the current situation where a large increase was necessary.
“Once the ECA or whatever it’s called — because everybody has some version of it — rises about one to two cents for an extended period, you need to do a rate update to include those prices because that’s the new long-term cost,” Hamby said. The IID had only made one rate adjustment in the last 30 years, back in 2015.
He added that the IID’s new policy requires biennial cost-of-service studies and rate updates every two years, ensuring that rates remain predictable and responsive to changing market conditions.
“We don’t want to be in a position where costs balloon out of control and customers get slammed with a sudden rate increase. This process is designed to prevent that,” Hamby said. “I used the intentional word ‘update’ because how often does your iPhone update? You don’t go 10 years and you’re still on a version whatever-point-o from Apple — it would be very buggy and terrible and not work very well.”
Despite the IID’s assurances, Nuricumbo and others remain skeptical about whether the new process will shield residents from rising costs in the long term.
IID’s Crumbling Infrastructure
Hamby defended the district’s decision, arguing that after decades of neglect, it was necessary to act before infrastructure failures led to power reliability issues.
Hamby pointed to an energy consumers advisory committee meeting where IID staff presented the age of the district’s transformers, revealing a peak in the 1950s and 1960s, with some equipment dating back as far as the 1930s.
“That was alarming because they’re important,” Hamby said. “I’m like, whoa, if everything is in that age bracket … that’s terrible.”
The IID was forced to shut down Mecca’s Desert View Power Plant in April 2024 and is now facing potential shutdowns at the Yucca plant in Yuma and the Central Generating Station in El Centro due to aging infrastructure. Hamby described the situation as critical.
With failing infrastructure limiting IID’s ability to generate power locally, the district has been forced to rely on purchasing power from outside sources, often at significant markups and occasionally even having that power taken away by other utilities at peak times before it could reach the Valley.
“Instead of being able to generate low-cost energy ourselves without a profit margin … we had to rely on others, and that was very expensive,” Hamby said. He argued that without immediate investment in generation infrastructure, the district will continue to face higher costs and market volatility, ultimately impacting ratepayers.
Speed of the Decision Raises Concerns
Despite the IID’s justifications, city officials across the Valley have expressed frustration at how quickly the board moved forward with the rate update.
“We believe the IID did in fact move too quickly to approve the rate hikes,” Calexico’s Nuricumbo said. “They received the completed study in November, swore-in one new director in December, followed by two weeks of holiday periods. They voted on this within less than 60 days of receiving the initial recommendation, which should never have happened.”
Calipatria Mayor Michael Luellen also questioned why the IID waited so long to address infrastructure needs.
“The failing infrastructure has been happening, I’ve been told, for years. … If we know the infrastructure is already crumbling, why not invest decades before that?” he said.
Hamby acknowledged that past IID boards were aware of the aging infrastructure but argued that political pressure to keep rates low prevented necessary investments.
“Everybody on board after board, you know, people would run and they’d say, ‘I will lower the rates’ and stuff like this, and so there was no leeway for the staff to come forward and actually propose something that made sense,” Hamby said.
He added that even when he first ran for office in 2020, he opposed rate increases because of the economic conditions at the time. However, after reviewing the district’s infrastructure reports during his term, he changed his stance.
“Now we have entirely new problems, but at the time my pledge to voters when I was first seeking election … was, ‘Hey, over the next four years, I oppose rate increases.’ I want to be fully informed. So I did that … but by my second year, it became clear that this wasn’t sustainable,” he said.
While the IID maintains that delaying the rate hike further would have only made things worse, Luellen and other officials remain critical of how the district handled the decision, arguing that the financial burden should not have fallen so suddenly on customers.
City Leaders Criticize Lack of Outreach
The IID has defended its public outreach efforts, citing website updates, mail inserts, social media ads and public notices across multiple newspapers between Dec. 18 and Jan. 16. The district also held workshops in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys.
However, multiple city leaders said these efforts fell short, arguing that the IID did not meet residents where they were. Nuricumbo noted that Calexico’s only workshop was scheduled at an inconvenient time with little notice.
“Our city was afforded a workshop with only about a 48-hour notice, it was held on a holiday, and at 2 p.m. when most folks are at work,” she said. “Members of our community asked our IID Director (Lewis Pacheco) why it was being held at 2 p.m., he responded that it was for seniors … and not to worry because there would be another workshop held later for the working community, which never happened.”
Brawley Mayor Gil Rebollar shared similar frustrations, saying his city could have helped inform residents had the IID engaged local organizations.
“Brawley has many organizations, community organizations from ACC to Hidalgo Hall Society, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, the school district … that would’ve helped inform the community of this decision,” he said.
Luellen went further, saying he felt “blindsided” by the rate hike’s speed.
“This was a topic of discussion one week and the next, I’m getting an email saying it’s official,” he said. “There were no outreach initiatives in Calipatria … and it’s a shame, because it doesn’t go to just a lack of transparency, it goes to continued disinvestment in certain communities.”
After the city sent a letter to the IID following the Calexico City Council meeting on Dec. 18, the city received a quick response from IID General Manager Jamie Asbury, stating that the district “had three workshops and had conducted sufficient outreach efforts.” Nuricumbo, however, remained unconvinced.
“We do not agree that was the case,” she said.
RELATED STORY: Calexico Council Demands IID Explain Looming Rate Hikes
Hamby acknowledged the frustration but argued that the IID’s infrastructure concerns required swift action.
“What happened here is there’s critical issues. We’ve gotta get these generators built because if we don’t, we are subjecting our customers to these really awful and expensive market conditions,” he said. “The faster that we can have local generation of local power for local customers and communities, the quicker we can ultimately reduce the costs in the mid and long-term.”
Can Assistance Programs Help Offset the Costs?
The IID has highlighted its $10 million in assistance programs for low-income residents, arguing that these programs can help mitigate financial strain. The district also offers an average billing program to smooth out seasonal fluctuations.
Still, some city leaders doubt that the assistance will be enough.
“Regarding the $10 million in assistance programs … we don’t believe it will be enough to assist our citizens with fixed incomes or living off their pension,” Nuricumbo said. “We cannot forget that our community relies heavily on air-conditioning approximately five to six months out of the year, so $10 million to assist the 160,000 accounts that they have will not go too far.”
Luellen was more blunt in his criticism.
“In my opinion, you can’t tax someone and then say, ‘Look, we’re going to give you X, Y and Z from your taxes,’ and hope they just essentially sit down and don’t complain or don’t say anything about it,” he said. “We’re essentially giving them a gut punch and putting a Band-Aid over with some money we stole from them.”
El Centro Mayor Tomás Oliva took a more measured approach, saying his city would work with the IID to ensure residents are aware of assistance programs.
“The city of El Centro will be reaching out to IID to offer our assistance in spreading information about their low-income assistance programs to ensure our residents are well-informed,” he said.
Will This Happen Again?
The IID has stated that the new structure will allow for smaller, more predictable rate updates, rather than another multi-decade gap followed by a sharp increase.
Hamby argued that waiting longer to adjust rates would only make costs worse.
“The longer you wait and you don’t update your rates the more the costs balloon … You’re gonna catch up with it at some point, but do you want to deal with a little snowball or do you want to deal with the giant snowball that’s rolled all the way down the mountain and is heading right at you?” he said.
Nuricumbo remains skeptical that the IID will keep rates stable over time.
“They say the ECA is gone, but what happens when costs rise again?” she said. “Will they reintroduce it? What will rates actually look like in 2028?”
As the IID moves forward with its rate changes, leaders are calling for improved transparency and better communication with the communities they serve. While officials have acknowledged the district’s infrastructure challenges, many argue that the rollout of the rate hike was flawed and left residents with more questions than answers.
Hamby acknowledged that the IID is working to correct years of inaction while also improving its communication efforts, but admitted the results have been less than ideal.
“IID has not had a tradition of updating its rates, and it has not had a tradition of communicating in effective ways with the community, and so we’re trying to do both at the same time,” he said. “And it’s suboptimal, the results, but I’m trying to undo a lot of prior consequences.”
“We respect IID,” Brawley’s Rebollar said. “But if the roles were reversed, I think they would want the same level of communication and respect from us.”
