San Jose Water (SJW) customers may notice a small refund on their next bill.
The typical residential SJW customer with a 3/4-inch meter will receive a one-time refund of $6.36 for the proration of service charges from June 1, 2011, through December 31, 2016. Customers with larger meters will receive refunds proportional to their meter size.
The refunds are the result of a change to the way SJW handles service charge rate changes. Beginning January 2017, SJW began prorating service charge rate changes. Proration applies to the first bill for an account following a change in rates. With proration, the service charge is billed at both the old and new rates depending on when the new rates take effect. Prior to January 2017, service charges were not prorated when the rate changed.
Cupertino Municipal Water customers will receive different one-time refund amounts. This is because there were less proration adjustments necessary due to the timing of rate changes approved by the City over the same 5-year period that these refunds cover.
While SJW has recently received approval from the CPUC to begin customer refunds, the CPUC is still finalizing its investigation into the issue. That is expected to be concluded later this year.