COUNTY NEWS RELEASE

Sewer and natural gas rate adjustments for the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) were recently approved by the Los Alamos County Council as well as the Board of Public Utilities and will go into effect as of October 1.

Residential sewer rates are the same for all residential customers, who will see monthly charges increase by $1.14. Commercial sewer rates are based on water consumption; commercial customers will see a 2% increase on the thousand-gallon rate and on the fixed service charge.

The new sewer rates were approved in February and include annual increases of 2% for four years, each starting on October 1. The natural gas rate adjustment was approved in August and also includes four years of annual increases.

Most natural gas customers will see a $0.76 increase in their monthly service charge and all customers will see a $0.02/therm increase in the fixed cost recovery portion of the gas consumption charge to $0.25/therm.

The pass-through rate model includes a monthly service fee and a commodity (or consumption) rate that is made up of two components: 1) a fixed cost recovery charge and 2) a variable cost of gas charge. The variable portion differs from month-to-month based on DPU’s actual costs to purchase the natural gas commodity. These costs continuously change based on fluctuating market prices for gas. The fixed portion covers operational costs for providing the service, such as labor and inventory.

DPU’s rates for all services can be found online at dpu.com/rates.