City Council to consider proposed new electricity rates – Estes Park Trail-Gazette

Seal of the city of Estes Park, established in 1987 and first placed on the official city flag in August 2007.

To ensure continued utility reliability and plan for future upgrades through capital improvement projects, the City of Estes Park periodically reviews the cost of providing services as well as projected revenues – the rates paid by customers. The city’s electric utility is a cost-based entity that relies solely on user fees to operate. Costs and revenues must be balanced in order to maintain operations and keep utilities in line with current practices. Pricing studies also ensure fair pricing across customer categories, so that one customer category does not subsidize another. The tariff study was presented to the municipal council in March 2024. Before that, the last study was completed in 2019.

Customers are encouraged to attend upcoming City Council meetings which will include discussions on electricity rates. Visit www.estes.org/boardsandmeetings for date confirmation and complete meeting details:

June 25: City council meeting to set public hearing dates of July 23, 2024 and August 13, 2024 for electricity rate increases
July 9: report and discussion of the municipal council
July 23 (tentative): City Council meeting to review draft rate plan (public comments encouraged)
August 13 (tentative): Final public hearing and potential adoption of new rates (public comments encouraged)

Municipal electric utilities like the City of Estes Park involve two major operations: electricity distribution and system capital improvements. The following system improvements are required:

Installation of tree cables (covered conductors) in the Allenspark area and Estes Valley.
Software modernization to support the transition from coal-fired power generation to carbon-free power generation.

For more information about studying electric rates, please contact the Utilities Department at 970-577-3588. Updates on this study will be posted at www.estes.org/electricrates.