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Inside the business of operating Estes Park’s electric utility
By Reuben Bergsten, Utilities Director
Estes Park Power & Communications
Town of Estes Park
Early in my career, I lived in the bustling city of San Francisco. But like many who’ve made their way to Estes Park, I prefer wide-open spaces to packed streets and subways. I've never stopped appreciating how lucky we are to live in this mountain community.
With Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest as our neighbors, vast areas of public land and preserved wilderness frame our landscape. Many more organizations maintain protected, public open spaces that benefit not only us, but the amazing wildlife that also live here. Our electric distribution system must travel through and around these areas – a welcome but challenging undertaking for Estes Park Power & Communications.
Estes Park Power & Communications is operated like a business. Our customers pay rates based on the type of use and how much electricity they use. Unlike our Front Range neighbors — who receive revenue from large industrial electric customers and expanding developments — our growth in electricity sales is small. Estes Park doesn’t have factories or sprawling subdivisions that offset the ever-increasing costs associated with maintaining a robust and reliable electric distribution system. Our rural service area has minimal growth and zero industrial customers. As a result, the cost to maintain and modernize our electric grid is reflected on the rest of our customers’ monthly electric bills. While any rate increase can feel frustrating, they support the work that prepares us for the future and keeps our power safe, reliable, and clean.
Our system, much of which was built many decades ago, must be updated to continue providing the safe and reliable electric service our customers depend on. Replacing aging poles and wires and preparing for the future is costly. Last year, voters chose to support some of these costs with a new funding source that allows us to make improvements even faster.
At the April 2024 Municipal Election, voters approved an updated version of the previous 1% sales tax, and continued it for another decade. Power & Communications now receives 4.5% of the revenues – approximately $250,000 annually - to replace bare wire lines with durable tree cable. The new lines reduce the risk of a compromised power line sparking a wildfire, while also improving service reliability. This means less fire risk and fewer outages due to falling trees, wind, heavy snow, etc. We also successfully applied for a $785,937 wildfire mitigation grant that allows us to add more of this tree cable in the Allenspark/Tahosa Valley area – much sooner than we could have otherwise. These funding sources reflect our desire to keep customer bills as low as we can. They really help when it comes time to look at our rates.
Rate studies are conducted every 3-5 years to ensure we are balancing costs with income. They also help ensure equitable rates between customer categories, or “classes,” so that one customer class does not subsidize another. The Town Board is in the process of reviewing the electric rate study we just completed, with their decision on rate increases expected at a second public hearing on June 24. Overall, the rate study proposed a 3.5% annual increase in the utility’s revenues. This translated to three consecutive years of 2% increases to the Residential class rates, and 3% increases to the Small Commercial class rates, with the other rate classes requiring a larger increase.
Increases in your electric bill depend on your energy usage. For instance, like others, my bill at home last January was higher because I used 53% more electricity due to the extended cold snap. Generally, if the current proposed rate increases are adopted, residential customers can anticipate a monthly increase of $3 to $6, while small commercial customers can expect an increase of $5 to $12. These changes are expected to take effect next year.
The details of the proposed increase to each rate class are available online at estes.org/electricrates, at Utility Billing in Town Hall, and at the Estes Valley Library. Town Board meeting materials are available at estes.org/boardsandmeetings. Customers are encouraged to join the conversation on our energy future on June 24 at 7 p.m. in the Town Board Room of Town Hall, 170 MacGregor Ave.
For more information, please contact Utilities Administrative Assistant Karla Sterling at 970-577-3588 or kste...@estes.org.
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