The Eugene Water & Electric Board commissioners have considered rate increases for customers in order to help offset the rising cost of inflation, and the cost to modernize, and improve aging water and electric infrastructure.
According to the utility company, there’s been a growing gap between the rate of inflation, and EWEB’s water and electric rates since at least 2016, with EWEB’s rates only increasing in recent memory.
“If you were to look at a line graph of inflation, and EWEB rate increases over time, what you would see is between 2017 and 2021, EWEB rates held steady, and then started to go up moderately since then,” said Jen Connors, a spokesperson with EWEB said. “The inflation line shows a much steeper increase.”
According to EWEB, the gap between the increase in inflation, and the gap in EWEB rates, are roughly 20%, and the continued increase in cost for raw materials, equipment, labor, construction, and purchased power costs are what
Alongside this, EWEB says they plan on investing $120 million into water and electric infrastructure over the course of 2025, and close to $1 billion over the next decade, to ensure that it can withstand future natural disasters.
The estimated cost for both the infrastructure investment, and inflation adjusted spending comes from EWEB’s internal revenue requirements.
“What we’re seeing based on those revenue requirements is that the average residential customer would see an increase of about $28 a month in their [electric] bill, and in their water bill, about $4 a month,” Connors said.
No decision has been made yet, as EWEB wants to ensure that the community’s voice is heard before a final decision is made in December of this year. That decision will come after a series of public hearings and meetings, the first of which is slated for October.
Any rate increases that are made will go into affect in February of 2025.