Laserfiche WebLink
2019 Water, Recycled Water, and Sewer Rate Study 3. Cost -of -Service Analysis <br />3. COST -OF -SERVICE ANALYSIS <br />The Cost -of -Service Allocation (COSA) analysis is intended to evaluate the cost of providing water, sewer <br />and recycled water service, and to allocate those costs to respective customer classes and rate structure <br />components to ensure the proposed rate structure is aligned with costs to provide such service. This is <br />done in order to be equitable among the City's ratepayers and to comply with Proposition 218, which <br />requires water rates to be proportionate to the cost of providing water service. This Study employed well - <br />established industry practices as recognized by the AWWA, WEF, and other accepted industry standards. <br />The following section presents a detailed description of the COSA methodology and corresponding <br />results. <br />The water and recycled water rate study employed a method that is consistent with the "commodity - <br />demand" COSA methodology promulgated in AWWA's Manual M1: Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and <br />Charges (M1). With this approach, costs are functionalized to system activities, allocated to two <br />functional categories: Source of Supply Costs and Utility Costs, and then distributed to different customer <br />classes based on their usage behavior. Unit costs are then used to distribute system costs to the various <br />components of the rate structure (see Section 4). Similarly, the sewer rate study followed principles <br />promulgated in WEF's Financing and Charges for Wastewater Systems, Manual of Practice No. 27 and <br />allocated to two functional categories: Account Costs and Utility Costs. <br />3.1 PROCESS <br />Both the water and sewer COSAs were conducted based upon the City's FY 2019/20 annualized <br />expenditure and revenue requirements per the RSA. The water COSA included the steps illustrated in <br />Figure 3-1. Likewise, the sewer COSA included the steps illustrated in Figure 3-2. <br />City of Santa Ana Stantec 117 <br />