This week Aspen City Council approved a rate increase on both the electric and water utilities run by the municipal government.
The rates will go up as much as five and a half percent — an additional two to seven dollars a month on average.
Though the price increase was up for public comment no one spoke on Monday night. City Utilities Finance Manager Lee Ledesma says no one from the public has commented in the past five years — as long as the increases have occurred. The city is slowly matching rates with the actual cost-of-service for the utilities.
Aspen is a national leader when it comes to using a rate structure to encourage conservation. It puts Ledesma in the tricky spot of discouraging people to purchase the “product” she sells. As usage has gone down, so have dividends, meaning the utility department is trying to provide for a growing consumer base with less capital.
“I've talked to other CFOs about how challenging it is as we move into an age of promoting efficiencies while still maintaining a workable business model," said Ledesma.
Instead of a sudden spike in utility rates to match the cost of providing electricity and water, the rates will continue to raise about five percent each year until 2021. There are more than 40 different categories in the utility rate structure - not every customer is affected each year.
There are currently about 4,000 water customers, ranging from small, urban studio apartments to agricultural operations on the outskirts of the city. There are about 3,000 electric customers on the 100-percent renewable grid available in the Aspen core.
