MOSES LAKE - Grant County PUD customers have the opportunity to help fellow PUD customers who are unable to pay their electric bills.

The program, named "Share the Warmth," is a community-sponsored program which has been offered for more than four decades by Grant PUD.

Share the Warmth goes toward providing emergency assistance for PUD customers who need help paying their winter electric bills.

"Those in need of our help are your neighbors, often elderly folks on fixed incomes, single-income families trying to make ends meet or just people who find themselves in difficult situations where they are not able to pay their electric bills," according to the PUD's website.

The Grant PUD keeps funds donated to Share the Warmth in a special designated fund, with PUD customers being qualified for the program by an external agency which determines how much assistance a customer needs.

After a PUD customer is qualified for the program, the donated money is transferred from the Share the Warmth designated account, into the customer's account, with the maximum amount a customer can receive being $300 per year.

Donations can be written in any desired amount on a customer's monthly PUD bill and adding the donation to a utility payment. There is a donation feature for PUD customers who pay their bills online.