Rochester Residents/Businesses Face Possible Higher Utility Bills
Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - Rochester Public Utilities customers may be paying more for electric and water services next year.
The RPU Board is scheduled to review the utility’s preliminary 2022 electric and water capital and operating budgets at its Tuesday meeting.
Management is recommending a 2.5-percent overall rate adjustment for both budgets.
Rates were frozen this year. Electric rates were also frozen in 2020.
Management is also making this recommendation:
"The Service Assured program ($1.99/month), which provides insurance for the potential failure of water lines from the street to the house which the resident owns, be applied to all residential customers. Customers will be able to decline coverage."
While RPU is projecting slow growth in water and electric revenue in the coming years, it is also dealing with large capital projects related to DMC, a planned new metering system, and aging infrastructure.
According to a memo:
“The proposed AMI metering system is projected at $15.4M. The current budget is modeling borrowing to fund the AMI project over 10 years, which increases debt service by $2.3M per year. The customer impact would be $3.30 per month, which would be added to the customer charge over time.”
Under the current schedule, the RPU Board is expected to act on the 2022 budgets at its Oct 26th meeting.
News update: Planned new substation for Rochester may be delayed.
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