A young Tucson family fell behind on bills after dad fell off the roof and broke his back and their premature baby spent a month in intensive care.
A grandmother struggling to stretch her fixed monthly income after her daughter died, leaving behind an 11-year-old granddaughter to raise.
A single dad working to overcome physical disabilities while raising two sons.
Those are just some real-life examples of local residents who have been helped by Tucson Electric Power’s Help With Emergency Energy Relief Operation (HEERO) program, which allows TEP ratepayers to contribute directly through their bills to help their less fortunate neighbors pay their power bills.
To contribute, you can set up your TEP account online to choose to round up your electric bill to the next dollar, and give that amount each month to HEERO, or pledge a dollar amount to contribute each month or as a one-time contribution.
Customers can sign up online at tep.com/heero, or use a paper form included as a bill insert.
TEP distributes all HEERO donations to the local Salvation Army, which uses the money to provide assistance to people identified by the Emergency Services Network, a group of human service agencies that serve Tucson’s limited-income population.
TEP administers the program, using no customer contributions, and customers can cancel at any time.
Giving through the HEERO program has increased this year as more families struggle with the economic havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, about 7,670 TEP customers contributed more than $122,000 to the program, and this year through November, 6,370 customers have contributed more than $124,000, TEP spokesman Joe Barrios said.
Though bill-rounding contributions are popular, some people choose to give set amounts or make a one-time donation around the holidays, Barrios said.
“It’s really any amount that customers feel comfortable in contributing,” Barrios said. “It’s important to remember that TEP covers the administrative costs for the program, so every cent that’s donated goes directly to help families and individuals in need.”
Other Southern Arizona utilities offer similar bill-based giving programs.
TEP’s sister rural utility, UniSource Energy Services, allows customers to contribute through a program called Warm Spirit.
Trico Electric Cooperative offers a similar program called Operation Round Up.
HEERO is only one of several bill-assistance programs available to customers of TEP and other Arizona utilities, which also offer discount rates to low-income customers.
The Salvation Army and other local social-service agencies distribute funding from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program.
The COVID-19 Community Support Fund established by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona also offers utility assistance. TEP has links to assistance for pandemic-related aid at tep.com/covid-19.
Information on local COVID-19 assistance programs is also available by phone by dialing 211.
Because of the pandemic, TEP and other utilities have suspended disconnections of customers for non-payment. And under an order issued recently by the Arizona Corporation Commission, those customers are placed on deferred payment plans of at least eight months, and some low-income customers are eligible for one-time $250 bill discounts.
TEP has agreed to fund $600,000 in initial discounts with company funds, and UniSource will cover $100,000 in discounts.
Earlier this year, TEP and UniSource contributed a total of $1 million in company funds to the Community Foundation’s COVID-19 relief fund and to Wildfire, a statewide nonprofit supporting low-income families.
