I am honored as CEO to celebrate Colorado Springs Utilities’ century of service this year. We have a great deal to be proud of – and a lot of work ahead of us.
Our municipal utility has about $4.6 billion in assets that have been built to support our city over the last 100 years. During the next five years, this will nearly double to include another $3.9 billion. These investments are needed for the community’s future.
After months of work, my team has developed a five-year financial plan to continue providing our customers with safe and reliable utility services while meeting all regulatory requirements. Here is a look at a few of the significant capital budget drivers.
Colorado regulations require us to reduce our carbon emissions 80% by 2030. To meet this mandate, we must retire our coal-fired power plants by the end of this decade. To ensure we can continue providing our community with reliable electricity, we must replace this lost power with new investments in renewable and natural gas generation.
Because these new renewable energy resources will be located outside of city limits, additional investments in transmission lines and substations are also critical.
To meet the demands of growth on the city’s east side, we’ll begin a major project to provide a critical wastewater “backbone.” The current estimated cost of the first phase of this project is $396 million and when complete, will serve up to 225,000 residents.
Major water investments are needed to meet future community needs. We need to acquire new water supplies through our water sharing program in the Lower Arkansas River Valley. We are also planning to enlarge Montgomery Reservoir in Park County to allow us to capture and store enough water to serve an additional 14,000 single-family residences annually.
We fund these investments through bonds and revenue from customer rates. Rates are based on the cost of providing service; we do not make a profit. To support our five-year plan, we are proposing base-rate increases each year from 2025 to 2029. The estimated increase on a typical residential bill would be about $14 a month in 2025 if approved by City Council in November.
These investments are crucial to maintaining the reliability our customers expect, while meeting regulatory requirements and the city’s growing demands.
Our future depends on the decisions we make today. This is especially true for our energy future. About 30% of our budget drivers are a result of state-mandated emissions reductions. I invite you to learn more about our five-year plan here.
Travas Deal, CEO
Colorado Springs Utilities