Pacific Power Customers in California Get a $111.83 Climate Credit on Their November Electric Bills

The California Public Utilities Commission says households served by Pacific Power will see a $111.83 California Climate Credit on their November electricity bills. Nobody has to apply: the credit lands automatically on eligible residential bills, whatever the household uses.

The commission announced the November credit for Pacific Power, Liberty Utilities and Bear Valley Electric Service customers in an Oct. 12 release. Pacific Power’s share is the biggest of the three by far: $111.83, compared with $71.98 for Liberty and $17.52 for Bear Valley. If the credit is larger than a month’s bill, the leftover carries forward to the next bill, according to the CPUC.

$111.83 in November, after $111.83 in April

The November credit is the second one this year. Pacific Power said in an April 15 announcement from Yreka that eligible residential and small business customers would see a $111.83 credit on their April bills. With November’s, a Pacific Power household gets $223.66 in Climate Credits for 2026.

The CPUC’s Climate Credit page lists the 2026 electric credit for Pacific Power as $111.83 in April and $111.83 in November. That is more than double what customers of the state’s biggest utilities get per payment: PG&E customers get $36.18 in August and September, Southern California Edison customers $36.00, and San Diego Gas & Electric customers $49.36.

The size reflects how the money is divided. The California Farm Bureau reported that the CPUC approved a settlement among PacifiCorp, the Farm Bureau and the state’s Public Advocates Office setting about $10.1 million in Climate Credits for PacifiCorp’s California customers in 2026, paid as a semiannual credit of $111.83, according to the Farm Bureau’s March 6 update. That settlement described the second payment as an October credit; the commission later moved the small utilities’ second credit to November.

Why the credit moved to November

Climate Credits used to arrive in April and October. On April 30, the commission voted to shift the credit into higher-cost months, according to a CPUC news release.

“This is about timing relief to match reality,” CPUC President John Reynolds said in the release.

Under that decision, PG&E, SCE and SDG&E electric customers get their credits in August and September starting this year. For Pacific Power, Liberty and Bear Valley, the commission’s Climate Credit page says 2026 credits come in April and November and in future years in October and November. Natural gas customers of PG&E, SDG&E, SoCalGas and Southwest Gas still got their 2026 gas credit in April: $46.26 for PG&E, $36.06 for SoCalGas, $45.57 for Southwest Gas and $32.58 for SDG&E, according to the commission’s Climate Credit page. That gas credit moves to February starting in 2027.

The change began as a proposed decision issued March 26, and the commission’s fact sheet on that proposal describes the credit as “an automatic direct credit on residential energy bills” that goes to all residential customers of investor-owned utilities and Community Choice Aggregators. The Small Business Climate Credit, paid in April and October, and the separate credit for California industry were left unchanged, according to the CPUC’s Climate Credit page. The March fact sheet had flagged Liberty’s amount as not yet approved, while Pacific Power’s $111.83 was already set; the October release confirmed both, with Liberty at $71.98.

Statewide, the commission put the 2026 Climate Credit at about $894 million for residential electric customers and $520 million for natural gas customers.

Where the money comes from

The credit is not a tax refund or a utility discount. It is paid for by California’s Cap-and-Invest Program, run by the California Air Resources Board, which requires large greenhouse gas emitters to buy allowances, the CPUC said. Proceeds from those allowances go back to residential utility customers as the Climate Credit.

The same April decision also directed 5% of electric utilities’ Cap-and-Invest proceeds to the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund, according to the commission.

The credit is a flat amount per eligible account, not tied to how much power a household uses. A Pacific Power customer whose November bill is below $111.83 would see the remaining credit roll into December, under the CPUC’s carryforward rule.

Who Pacific Power serves in California

Pacific Power, a division of PacifiCorp, serves the state’s far northern corner. The utility’s energy assistance directory lists local help in four California counties: Del Norte, Modoc, Shasta and Siskiyou. Agencies named there include the Del Norte Senior Center, TEACH in Modoc County, the Self-Help Home Improvement Project in Shasta County and Great Northern Services in Siskiyou County, listed as the local energy assistance contacts for each county.

For readers tracking other help with winter bills, the site has covered automatic help such as New York’s POWER rebate checks and heating programs like Wisconsin’s, where benefits average $441.

The CPUC says the credit is applied automatically, so eligible Pacific Power households don’t need to call, sign up or file anything to get the November amount.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Av9 – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons