If you are on Catalina Island, your water bill will go up, most likely in March.
That was the news from Southern California Edison representatives who spoke at the Feb. 20 Avalon City Council meeting.
Background
Ryan Stevenson, SCE, the water rate case manager for Catalina, told the council that Edison filed the application for a rate increase in October 2020. Normally, Stevenson said, an application takes 18 months. This one was heavily litigated.
The original proposal was for Edison to get $9 million in revenue. “Which was a 125% increase” over the previous rate case, according to Stevenson.
Edison also requested $29 in electric recovery, which Stevenson said was a big issue in the rate case.
But the California Public Utilities Commission denied the electric subsidy, according to Stevenson. They also disallowed some Edison costs.
“An amount would be accumulated and recovered over 15 years,” Stevenson said.
According to a slide Stevenson showed to the council, recovery of that money would start in 2025.
Edison had other drought-related costs. “They ordered us to recover that in 10 years, beginning in 2026,” Stevenson said.
“The average customer bills will be increasing,” Stevenson said.
He said in 2024, residential customers’ average bill is $68 per month and will go up to about $93 dollars per month, roughly a 36% increase for 2024.
According to Stevenson, residential CARE customers (a smaller group) would see their bills increase about 15% in 2024.
He said commercial customers would see a 12% rate increase in 2024.
Stevenson said the rate increase is expected to begin in 2024.
“When is the next time you can put in a rate increase to the PUC?” Mayor Anni Marshall asked.
According to Stevenson, the water side is not on a schedule. On the electric side, he said they were on a mandatory four-year schedule. According to Stevenson, the PUC recommended that Edison to look at alternative revenue options and act on them before the next application.
“They were obviously concerned about the large increase. They authorized the investments because they knew they had to be made,” Stevenson said.
“We don’t have a date yet,” he said.
Marshall asked for a possible time.
Stevenson said 2027, 2028 or 2029.
He said in the interim they would file annual advice letters to update the PUC on escalation rates and things like that.
Stevenson described advice letters are much smaller rate increases.
He said the PUC authorized some improvements but according to Stevenson, Edison can only request to recover costs when those improvements go into service.
Marshall wanted to know what the revenue alternatives would be.
Stevenson said one of the reasons this rate case took so long was because they (apparently the PUC) ordered an independent study of revenue sources.
Stevenson said one of the options that the PUC encouraged Edison to look at was the boat fee because the commission regulates the rates of the boats that come to the Island.
“But there are other alternatives as well and we want to explore all those,” Stevenson said.
Councilmember Yesenia De La Rosa said she knew Edison had programs for customers. “Have you guys considered doing one, possibly, just for Catalina residents?” she asked.
De La Rosa pointed out that many Island residents work two or three jobs.
Celina Luna, government relations manager, SCE, thanked her and said that was how she was going to end this presentation.
She said she was working with Edison’s CARE and FERA team to make Catalina-specific literature that covers all three utilities. She said they were working on the best events to meet with the residents.
Stevenson said the CARE discount rate was increased to approximately 32.5%.
He also said the PUC ordered Edison to look at different low-income programs and provide that information to customers.
