Annual operating budget

We develop our annual budget to meet system needs, provide value to our customers’ lives and support economic growth. As a community-owned utility, we are a nonprofit and do not make money on the rates we charge.  

Base rates support the annual budget and are designed to cover the cost to provide services. Base rates fund major projects, system improvements and maintenance to meet regulations, support customer needs and maintain service reliability.

On Nov. 12, 2024, City Council approved the 2025 budget and five year rate case.  The new base rates for 2025-2029 and the 2026 budget will be effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Budget drivers

The drivers of the budget fall into these primary categories:  

• Reliability. System improvements or equipment required to operate the existing system reliably and resiliently.  
• Regulatory. Required by local, state or federal law.  
• Growth/capacity. Projects that increase capacity for population or system growth.

Five-year rate case

2026 will mark year two of our five-year rate case. We are in a period of historic demands and industry change. Currently, we have about $4.6 billion of infrastructure in our system that has been built and maintained over our 100-year history. We expect to add another $3.9 billion in assets by 2030. 

As a result, we must increase our budget to pay for these necessary projects. Our 2026 budget is estimated to be ~2.2 billion - a 23% increase over the 2025 budget. Despite these challenges, we believe this plan will keep rates competitive compared to other Front Range utilities.

• Increasing our budget to pay for these future projects will result in rate increases across all four services from 2025-2029.
• We understand increases have a financial impact on our customers and are committed to providing payment assistance programs, rebates, efficiency information and rate options to support you.