IID suspends electric service disconnections

IMPERIAL — Imperial Irrigation District customers who fall past due on their electric bills during the current COVID-19 pandemic have been granted a reprieve.

IID announced Tuesday that it is temporarily suspending all electric service disconnections due to non-payment for residential and commercial customers until further notice.

“The current situation we are all facing has a direct impact on our customers, employees and the greater community,” said Norma Sierra Galindo, IID board president. “By taking these actions today, we provide some form of relief to those customers who need it most while also doing our part to help slow the spread of this disease.”

Any customer who is struggling to pay their IID electric bill due to financial hardships stemming from the coronavirus is asked to call IID at (800) 303-7756 to make payment arrangements.

Customers who are behind on payment will still owe IID for service; they will just not lose power at this time, the utility said. The district is also temporarily waiving customer late fees.

While IID’s in- person customer service centers will remain open, the district encourages customers to use one of the self-service options to help reduce overcrowding at district facilities: online bill pay over www.iid.com, using the IIDConnect app on their

mobile device, paying by mail or by using one of the walk-up secure payment boxes located at our customer service centers.

Additionally, while IID will continue to convene its regularly scheduled public board and board committee meetings, it has put measures in place to reduce risks to the public and to its employees.

In a letter to customers, IID General Manager Henry Martinez strongly encouraged members of the public to stay home and watch or listen to the live audio or video stream of the board and board committee meetings. More information is available at www.iid.com/livestream.

“As added precautions, we’ve increased the cleaning frequency of all common areas in our buildings, are providing additional hand sanitizers throughout facilities and payment centers and ask that staff and the public alike adhere to social distancing guidelines,” he said.

IID has also postponed all tours, on- site classes and staff attendance at public events and cancelled all non-critical employee travel until further notice.

“We will continue to stay on top of the latest information on this rapidly evolving situation and we encourage our customers to do the same,” Martinez said.