Some D.C. utility customers getting rate break in 2013

Dick Uliano, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – Utility customers might feel squeezed by continually rising bills, but at least one group will be catching a break with the start of the new year.

D.C. Water customers can expect a small rebate in January’s bill.

“If you’re a residential customer in D.C., you are likely to see something on the order of a $9 rebate on your January water bill,” says Alan Heymann, spokesman for D.C. Water.

D.C. Water, a public utility and part of the D.C. government, ran an operating surplus of $20.5 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

“It cost less money to run the utility than the ratepayers put in, so the ratepayers get some of that money back,” Heymann says.

Suburban Maryland’s WSSC, which buys services from D.C. Water, is also sharing in the utility’s $20.5 million surplus.

After detecting the surplus in July, the D.C. Water Board decided to allocate the funds.

  • $5.8 million is being rebated to WSSC, which pays upfront, for wholesale water and sewer services provided by D.C. Water.
  • $5.5 million is being put into D.C. Water’s rate stabilization fund, money used to limit rate increases in the coming year.
  • $5 million dollars is being set aside for the utility’s pay-as-you-go fund, a fund used to help reduce financing charges for capital construction projects undertaken by D.C. Water.

The remaining $4.2 million dollars is being used to provide rebates to 130,000 retail customers including business, residential and government customers in the city.

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(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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