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The Arizona Corporation Commission has approved an increase of approximately 18 percent in water rates for customers of Chaparral City Water Company.
According to the order approved by the ACC, average water usage for residential customers is 7,870 gallons per month. That average should result in an increase of about $6.74 per month, from $37.85 to $44.59.
CCWC and its parent company, EPCOR, originally requested a roughly 35 percent rate increase. EPCOR is a Canadian company owned by the City of Edmonton, Alberta.
The new rates are effective July 1, and customers should be receiving information from EPCOR relating to the increase with their next billing.
The ACC is also ordering EPCOR to file a plan within 120 days with an analysis and plan to achieve a more balanced, reasonable and appropriate capital structure.
The commission also approved a low-income program proposed by the water company and it gave the company 60 days to file a plan to administer the program.
The order also calls on EPCOR within 90 days to file a report that details monthly usage for each meter size and customer class for the 2013 calendar year.
These reports are required to be filed annually beginning March 30, 2015.
This information will be used to help develop future rate structures.
The ACC order authorizes EPCOR to implement a CAP surcharge and gave the company 30 days to file a Surcharge Plan of Administration.
CCWC is also authorized to implement a System Improvement Benefit (SIB) surcharge mechanism.
The SIB will allow EPCOR to charge customers a surcharge to help pay for specified projects to maintain infrastructure.
Lina Bellenir, a Fountain Hills resident who filed as an intervener in the rate case, opposes the SIB plan.
“The SIB mechanism shifts the risk from EPCOR to the ratepayer without adequate financial consideration to the ratepayer,” Bellenir said in an email to The Times recently.
“I believe this mechanism is not in the public interest because it reduces the pressure for (EPCOR) to operate prudently and efficiently, and in the end the consumer loses.”
The ACC is also allowing for a storage tank maintenance fund of up to $202,184 per year, or $3.6 million over 18 years.
As of press time EPCOR officials said they had not seen the final order from the ACC and had no comment.
