“This week we will look at the type of filing to see where we could use some rate relief,” CUC Deputy Executive Director Alan W. Fletcher said.
But he said whatever increases CUC will petition, it will go back as services to its customers.
Fletcher said they will justify to the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission their petition for new rates.
“We have a case to make,” he said, adding that CUC believes that the commission will look at its petition thoroughly and fairly.
He said CUC wants to focus on its operation and delivery of services to its clients.
“To do that, of course, we have to be adequately funded,” he added.
CUC general counsel Deborah Fisher said their rate consultant Economist.com and chief finance officer Charles H. Warren will also be looking at the implication of a new levelized energy adjustment clause, or LEAC, rate as presented by the Georgetown Consulting Group.
“When you use water and pump and everything else you also use electricity,” she said, adding that cost is one of the factors in CUC’s upcoming rate case for water.
She said they have to look at how much electricity is used to provide water and wastewater services to their customers.
Georgetown, CPUC’s technical consultant, recently recommended a change in LEAC rate that would reflect the current world fuel oil market condition.
Fletcher said if CUC have had a rate structure to finance their improvements in power, water and wastewater services, the rate would have been twice what they are.
However, CUC is actively looking for assistance from grantors like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“EPA is a great partner here. They hold our feet to the fire on compliance issues as well they should but at the same time they’re also a large supporter and funder at the type of improvements we need,” Fletcher said.
Through EPA, CUC was able to get $21 million in federal assistance which was allotted for water and wastewater infrastructure improvement.
CUC is not for profit, Fisher said, which means “we can only provide the service that we are able to get the revenue for and that’s the quality and the ability that we have.”
For this fiscal year 2011, Fletcher earlier reported that CUC was only able to secure $1.1 million for water and $1.7 million for sewers and these amounts were not enough to pay its current operation expenses.
