Rates for power, water in Eugene set to rise as EWEB prepares for future costs

Eugene residents can expect to see an increase in electricity and water costs next year, with the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) giving the nod this week to its most significant rate hike in a decade.

Citing increased costs to the utility, EWEB Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a 2024 budget to raise residential electric rates 6.25% and raise water rates 8.3%.

"There's a lot of pressures that are being put on us all at once," Commissioner John Barofsky said. "Increased prices from Bonneville, pre-funding Leaburg, aging infrastructure that has all come due at once. … Our commissioners take it very seriously how our utility bills impact our customers, and so anytime that we have to raise rates just know that we do it with a heavy heart."

This is the voter-owned utility's largest rate increase in ten years. EWEB calculated that for an average single-family home, based on a baseline of 1,600 kWh of electricity and 9,000 gallons of water, the monthly electricity bill will increase from $179.02 to $190.12 and the water bill will climb from $40.21 to $43.30.

The new prices go into effect in February.

EWEB's current residential electricity rate is $23.50 plus 9.72 cents per kilowatt hour and will increase to $25 plus 10.32 cents per kilowatt hour. Water bills are calculated with a more complex formula that includes water meter size, water usage and elevation.

Average percent price increases for different EWEB customers in 2024:

2023 vs 2024 monthly electric bills for common residential customers:

2023 vs 2024 monthly water bills for sample customers who live in Eugene city limits at an elevation under 800 feet and have a water meter smaller than one inch:

Over email, EWEB spokesperson Aaron Orlowski told the Register-Guard rate hikes would help cover increasing costs, saying the funds would go toward things like:

• Water investments in new infrastructure, including a treatment plant on the Willamette River, the replacement of aging water storage tanks and the need to strengthen pipelines.

• Electric investments, including rebuilding aging substations and modernizing transmission and distribution systems.

• Higher prices for purchased power, including rising costs of power supplied by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

• Global inflationary pressures that have resulted in rising costs for equipment like pipes (up 50% in the last two years), transformers (up 50-85%) and power poles (up 30%).

"The main drivers of price changes are necessary investments in aging infrastructure and the rising costs of operations," Orlowski said. "Much of our electric and water infrastructure was built more than half a century ago and is reaching the end of its life. Today, we need to invest in rebuilding that infrastructure."

The 2025 rates have not been determined, but Orlowski said that because these infrastructure updates will take multiple years, EWEB "rates will gradually rise over the next few years."

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached over email at atorres@registerguard.com or on twitter @alanfryetorres.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene utilities to go up in 2024. Here's how much it'll cost