2/5/18 water rate analysis feedback

[patwater]

Here is the 2015 survey report for reference: http://ca-nv-awwa.org/canv/downloads/2016/CANVRateSurvey2015.pdf

Additional analyses

• - John had good points about ET used in typical bill. Ideally that would be localized

• - Type of rate structure (similar to bill frequency)

• - Dashboard with hydrologic region as a selector

• - Group statistics by region (hydrologic and other)

• Rate structure by region

• Average volumetric / variable charge

• Average fixed charge

• - Use 15 ccf for default average usage

• - Use agency's R-GPCD to dynamically set water usage for rates. Could do a winter and summer bill plot. X axis price at typical water usage dynamically set by actual R-GPCD; Y axis is the amount over / under the efficiency target (also use water budget / goal)

• - Scatter plot of mandated percentage reduction against actually achieved reduction. Color based on yes / no response to drought rate changes.

• - Comparing to 2013 and 2015 results. Ideas on how to implement? Are people changing rate structures? Are people changing bimonthly to monthly? Are people adding drought rates?

• - Just for fun... these joy plots are super cool and would be great to integrate that style somehow: https://lsteely.shinyapps.io/streamflow_joyplots/

Will be good to keep discussing about which analyses are more amenable to being put in the report and which are more amenable to interactive dashboards on a website.

[patwater]

We didn't get into comparing against income and efficiency. One key analytical vector could be affordability which has become top of mind. Please feel free to share other ideas for analyses and how to best present.

CC @monobina

[patwater]

Ideas from Johnathan Cruz:

• calculate water rate affordability medians utilized in Fitch and other bond ratings agencies
• look into how coupled water revenue is with demand. Ties into Simulate changes in demand #9

Fitch 2018 Outlook Water and Sewer Sector.pdf

Fitch 2018 Water and Sewer Medians.pdf

[monobina]

Couple thoughts on this
• I think the chart on Ratio of Service charge to Total Bill is very useful. How about a chart with a further breakdown by wastewater charge, water charge and fixed charge?
• In the breakdown of waste water rate structure will it be useful to break it down by variable charge (which can include by hhsize), volumetric charge and fixed charge?
• Will it be useful to add charts on variability in ratio of fixed cost :variable cost over the past 3/5 years ?
• Seasonal variation in average usage ?
• For the affordability I think calculating water rate affordability median utilized in Fitch and other bond ratings agencies is great. Another option might be to generate a chart with ratio of average/median water bill to the average/median income by region

[patwater]

@monobina some thoughts line by line:

• Good idea on wastewater charge though my sense is most utilities don't have a wastewater charge reported.
• I'm not sure how to show the variability in the ratio fixed to variable cost over time. We have OWRS files generally only for the most recent rate structure so don't have that longitudinal comparison
• For seasonal variation in average usage what are you thinking?
• Regarding affordability, I agree and actually think that's one of the Fitch medians. See "Individual Water/Sewer Utility Average Annual Bill as % of MHI"

[patwater]

Notes from 2/12/18 meeting:

General comment:
Please push updates :)

Nomenclature nit:
Target production -> "Efficiency Goal"

Kernel Density Plot -- Change y axis to count of districts rather than density ratio

Time series include summary statistics like:
- Total bill
- Median income in the district
- Data quality consideration (useful first approximation / evidence of systematic bias / substantial evidence of systematic bias) -- see Statewide Efficiency Explorer
- Median bill ratio to median income in the district

CC @victorsette @fernandomelchor

[monobina]

Great work on the dashboard!

Agree that without time series information it will be hard to show the variability over time. For the seasonal components was thinking about comparing summer/winter bill/usage. However some of the charts in the current dashboard is already capturing seasonal components I think.

Will it be useful to add more granularity by by customer classes for some of the charts like SFR/MFR/COM/IRR/RC ? The charts that can show this might be the - (1) Average bill (2) Average Usage (3) Commodity Charge vs Usage ccf (4) ratio of Service charge to Total Bill

Might be a bit too stretch for the purpose but just thought of sharing the idea.