To: Members of the Castle Rock Water Commission
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Nichol Bussey, Business Solutions Manager
Paul Rementer, Enterprise Fund Analyst
Title
Customer Characteristics
Town Council Agenda Date: NA
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
As part of the annual rates and fees study, Castle Rock Water (CRW) staff gathers several pieces of information to input into the four enterprise models for calculating rates, system development fees and cost of service. Throughout the study, staff will bring to Commission some of those inputs and deliverables used for this process.
Customer Characteristics Analysis (Attachment A)
As a part of the annual Rates and Fees Study, Castle Rock Water conducts an in-depth analysis of accounts in service to determine customer characteristics and consumption patterns. We start by looking at the most current billing data for FY2023. From there, we break down the number of accounts by meter size and customer class. We then compare the number of actual permits for the last several years to the number of projected permits in that same year. The Town’s Development Services Department provides the number of accounts by customer class for past actuals as well as the forecasted amounts for FY2024 and FY2025.
An average consumption based on the most current three years (2021-2023) by account, meter size, customer class and winter versus summer season is calculated. This average three-year period serves as a comparison to previous three-year periods going back as far as 2013. This takes into consideration weather patterns and rainfall variances from year-to-year. There is a section in the report showing the monthly rainfall compared to average consumption patterns as one tool to evaluate the effectiveness of water conservation.
These individual three-year average consumption calculations provide the basis for meter equivalency factors. Starting in 2010, the Town implemented actual use meter equivalency factors in assessing the monthly service charges for water, wastewater, and water resources. The average consumption for all ¾” meters serves as the base unit with the average consumption for all larger size meters divided into this base unit to get an equivalency factor by meter size and customer class.
Customer data for the last three years (2021-2023) then determines an average representative customer for each customer class. One customer from each customer class then represents the class average and their consumption patterns are used to calculate a typical customer’s annual bill.
In 2020, we started showing the average consumption patterns of atypical customers’ consumption patterns compared to the average customer. Atypical can be defined as a customer whose consumption patterns are not typical of an average customer in that same meter size and or customer class due to the nature of their business or varying water needs. We eliminate these from the average calculation as to avoid skewing the average for a representative customer by meter size and customer class.
Billed usage by tier from 2014-2023 by customer class is analyzed to see if customers are staying within their water budget tiered rate structure. The purpose of this data analysis is also to see if customers over time are conserving water and avoiding Tier 3 - Excessive usage and Surcharge (over 40,000 gallons per month).
We also looked at the customers with a 0.67 SFE to see if their consumption patterns are meeting the intent of the program, to use one-third less water than an average ¾” residential customer’s usage. Additional information such as 0.67 SFE accounts by irrigated area also help us to understand the larger irrigated accounts that typically consume larger amounts of water and may or may not be meeting the intent of the program. In addition to the 0.67 SFE accounts, we also review consumption patterns for Water Efficiency Plan (WEP) accounts to determine the impact of their required water efficient products on consumption.
Other areas within the study include consumption patterns based on watering schedules, consumption patterns of residential customers who received rebates for ColoradoScape conversions, customer class consumption based on irrigated areas, consumption patterns for customers designated as HOAs, bulk water accounts consumption and Town accounts consumption patterns over time. We also compare weather patterns to customer usage across the customer classes to see if there is a correlation between the two.
Like the water fund, we also chart the number of accounts from the latest 2023 billing data plus growth projections for 2024 and 2025 for customers who are receiving water resources and wastewater services. Stormwater Single Family Equivalents (SFEs) is the unit of measure for the stormwater fund, unlike accounts which are the unit of measure in the other three enterprise funds. CRW uses 3,255 impervious square feet for one SFE for this calculation.
Key information found in this report integrates into the development of rates and fees.
Attachment:
Attachment A: Customer Characteristics Analysis