Kyle Roadman, EPUD General Manager
Hello Emerald Customers-Owners,
Happy Fall from the staff here at Seavey Loop. As the weather changes and the clocks turn back, we’ve been busy working on our 2023 budget proposal. This annual process is always a good chance to assess how we’re doing financially and take stock of our progress as a utility.
What’s the current status?
Earlier this month, we presented the full 2023 budget proposal to our Board, as well as our Citizen Advisory Committee on Finance and Rates. We’ll be holding a public hearing on the proposal the evening of October 18th, 2022 at 6:00 pm. Feel free to stop by our office to offer comment, or join us virtually by going to www.epud.org/zoom .
Check out the full 2023 Budget Proposal by clicking on the following link:
https://www.epud.org/wp-content/uploads/2023-Budget-Proposal-web.pdf
We separate our budget into two components: the Operating Budget and the Capital Budget. The Operating Budget reflects the revenues and expenses related to our ongoing, day-to-day operations while the Capital Budget represents the funding sources and investments necessary to improve our long-term assets (poles, wires, transformers, etc.).
Operating Budget Summary
A summary of our 2023 Operating Budget Proposal is shown below.
2023 Operating Budget Proposal
I’m particularly excited about several aspects of the Operating Budget this year:
- No Rate Increase: For the fourth year in a row, we are not proposing a rate increase for customers. In the current environment of high inflation and economic uncertainty, we hope this is a bright spot in your household budget.
- Continued Revenue Growth: Our revenues have increased significantly in recent years, primarily due to growth in usage across our system rather than through rate increases. Although the macroeconomic environment is looking more uncertain, we’re still expecting this growth to continue in 2023. We’re also seeing a positive contribution from the Wholesale Revenue category, driven by higher market pricing for our surplus energy.
- Increased Operating Margin: This key measure shows that we’re being efficient with resources by growing our expenses slower than our revenues. There are certain strategic investments we have to make to keep up with our growth, but we’ve tried to ensure these are reasonable and aligned with our sales.
- Lower Debt Service: Just this month we paid off a major portion of our remaining bonds, freeing up significant cash flow in our annual budget. Even with the new borrowing we did in 2021, our annual debt service is now $1.8 million lower.
Capital Budget Summary
Our 2023 Capital Budget is also noteworthy and represents our largest ever investment back into our distribution system:
2023 Capital Budget Proposal
As you can see, we have exciting improvements planned throughout the District on projects ranging from a new substation, cable and wire replacements, and overhead-to-underground line conversions. A specific list of projects planned for 2023 is shown below.
The 2023 budget proposal demonstrates our commitment to keeping your rates stable while making smart investments back into our system. The result should be continued improvements in both reliability and affordability for all customers.
Please stay safe,
