The City of Aurora is home to over 400,000 people and is the third largest utility in Colorado. The city is one of the most water-challenged providers in Colorado. Dependent on multiple watersheds, each subjected to the same or greater aridification as the Colorado River, Aurora has often led the way in Colorado in terms of economic strategies for pricing its water supplies. Members of our team have been partners with Aurora Water for the over 15 years, during which Aurora has led the state with innovative pricing strategies often replicated by other city utilities. During that time, we have developed the city’s current standard rate structure featuring a lifeline tier and three additional tiers designed specifically to mitigate revenue risks. Most recently, we redesigned the city’s drought surcharge rates using an innovative approach that assesses surcharges only when customer usage exceeds their average wintertime consumption levels. Other program highlights include:
- Redesigned the residential water rate for the city to include greater conservation price incentives.
- Designed new, innovative drought surcharges that customers only incur for outdoor usage.
- Implemented industry-leading approach to the connection fees that recognizes water resource costs and lost reusability from irrigation.
- Provided careful analysis that led the city council adoption a new rate structure that is more sensitive to the smallest water users in the city, effectively creating a new “affordability” block, and improving cost recovery from high-use/high-peak customers.
- Developed the new rate design, while much more progressive, will still provide high levels of revenue stability with an expected change of only 5% from the previous rates under the most severe climate conditions.