A rate a fixed price paid for a service; in our case, a rate is the price you pay for how much water, power or wastewater service you use. For example, if you consume 100 kWh of electricity, and your rate for electricity use is $0.01 per kWh, your charge for that electricity is $1.

Different types of customers have different rates, due to the different costs of providing them their services. You can look at the Rates, Charges and Fees document on this webpage to see what rates you pay.

We regularly evaluate the costs of (1) providing reliable, high-quality water, power and wastewater services and (2) properly maintaining the infrastructure that provides those services. We determine the costs of providing every type of customer with these services, and work to ensure our rates for each customer type cover those costs each year.

Every year we recommend these rates to the Loveland Utilities Commission (LUC), which is responsible for reviewing our proposed rates and ultimately recommending rates they approve to Loveland City Council for final approval and adoption.

Every three years we work with expert rate consultants to review our rates, analyzing the general use of service for each group and comparing it with their unique costs. The analysis of all these rate classes ensures that one customer group does not subsidize another, and keeps our rates fair for everyone.

In order for new rates to be approved, we present our findings to the Loveland Utilities Commission (LUC) for initial approval and ultimately to Loveland City Council for final approval. These organizations review our cost of service and recommended rates so customers can feel confident they’re receiving a fair price.

Here's how the process works:

1. First, annual rate proposals for an upcoming year are presented publicly in the September LUC meeting (open to the public).
2. After LUC approval, resources from the meeting are made available in the LUC meeting packet and passed to City Council, which uses rate study data to form decisions about rate tracks.
3. In October, City Council will hold a final vote on rate proposals (open to the public). Rates are typically approved in October.
4. In November, rates for the following calendar year are published to this webpage.
5. On January 1 of the following year, new rates take effect.

After final LUC and City Council approval, we upload the following year's Rates, Charges and Fees document alongside the current year's rates on this webpage. Once the new year arrives, the page will update to show only active rates. 

We also detail newly approved residential rate changes in our City Update newsletter that comes with your bill in November. Keep an eye out for this newsletter to see the simple explanation, including how the dollars and cents apply to an average household.

If you missed the November City Update newsletter article, you can view all published newsletters online at lovgov.org/CityUpdate.