Colorado Springs Utilities to present 5-year rate increases

COLORADO SPRINGS — Rate increases are most likely coming for Colorado Springs Utilities customers, starting as early as next year.

Typically, rate increases are presented on an annual basis but Springs Utilities says it needs more money to pay for infrastructure accommodating for growth and state regulations.

This is why it’s hoping to get approval for rate increases on water, gas, electricity, and wastewater every year for the next five years. As the current proposal stands, customers could be paying about $80 more a month in 2029 compared to their current bills.

Colorado Springs Utilities

“These are significant increases for our customers,” Tristan Gearhart, Chief Planning and Financial Officer for Colorado Springs Utilities said Tuesday, “We don’t take that lightly. We know that that is something that presses the community.”

The regulatory pressures Colorado Springs Utilities references is eliminating greenhouse gas reduction 80 percent by 2030, as required by the state. Previously the regulations set the benchmark at 50 percent by 2030.

Gearhart pointed to the closing of the Martin Drake Power Plant put Springs Utilities closer to the 50 percent mark but did not say whether or not rate increases should have been in place prior to this 5-year proposal.

The Ray Nixon power plant is also set to be decommissioned in 2030.

“Some of it just comes down to timing on this as well. We know that, Nixon coal plant actually offers a lot of value to our customers from a cost perspective, from a purely financial perspective,” Gearhart said, “being able to run that plant as a baseload plant that’s there at a very low cost to customers is something that definitely works out well for us.”

Springs Utilities also points to growth as a need for more infrastructure, including infrastructure for a wastewater system as the city expands east. Gearhart said it could be $400 million worth of work for the system to bring on 100,000 new homes.

“That doesn’t happen over a short period of time, but getting the capital infrastructure in place to be able to support that is a need that’s out there right now,” Gearhart said.

The proposal will be presented to the Utilities Board on Wednesday and will need to be voted on by city council before the rates would go into effect.

To see the full details of the rate proposal, visit the following link:Colorado Springs Utilities.
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