As our customers and owners, you have a voice in pricing decisions. If you have input regarding rates, you are invited to attend a public meeting of either City Council or our Utilities Board. When we talk about changes to rates, there are two different aspects of rates that can be affected: base rates and cost adjustments. Base rates reflect the costs associated with producing and delivering each service to customers. Base rates pay for the operation and maintenance of power plants, water collection and distribution, wastewater treatment, and more. The physical things you see, i.e. poles, wires, pipes, are financed through the base rates. According to our charter, base rates may be reviewed and changed annually. Cost adjustments only apply to electric and natural gas service. Because the national markets for natural gas and electricity are volatile and uncontrollable, we use cost adjustments to compensate for increases and decreases in market prices. Natural gas cost adjustments directly reflect the costs we are paying to serve our customers with natural gas for furnaces, water heaters, ovens and so forth. Because natural gas is a source of electric production, electric cost adjustments are also affected by fluctuations in natural gas costs. Changes to the cost adjustments directly reflect costs that we are paying – we do not profit from increases to the adjustments. Cost adjustments may be reviewed and changed on a monthly basis. | 
