A federal judge said Tuesday he is worried that customers of a Southern California power authority that filed for bankruptcy last week could see their electric bills go up as the cities it serves brace for summer, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. “It gets hot out here,” Judge Scott Yun of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, Calif., said during the first hearing in Western Community Energy’s municipal bankruptcy case. How the bankruptcy might impact WCE customers will be among the most critical factors Judge Yun said he would consider as the power provider’s chapter 9 bankruptcy moves forward. Residents of California’s Inland Empire — a region east of Los Angeles where WCE’s roughly 100,000 customers live — routinely pay between $300 and $600 a month for utilities during the summer months when temperatures regularly surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Judge Yun said. WCE’s board moved earlier this year to raise rates and as a result customers will see their summer billing increase by an estimated $10 to $15 a month on average. “It is impossible to live and have your kids indoors and do anything without turning on your utilities,” Judge Yun said. WCE began providing power to its roughly 100,000 customers last year in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, which stressed the authority’s finances to the breaking point during its first year of operation. WCE was created through California’s community choice aggregation program, which allows municipalities to jointly negotiate to purchase energy in bulk.
