Think about all the ways you rely on electricity in your home. From space and water heating to electronics and appliances – it all uses electricity.

Because electricity and water are so reliable and accessible with the simple flip of a switch or turn of the tap, they can be easy to take for granted. Most of us don’t take time to think about where electricity and water come from, how they get to our homes or how much we rely on them in our daily lives.

So it’s no wonder that our monthly bills may occasionally catch us by surprise.

When you pay your bill, you deserve to know where your dollar goes, what may impact future prices and how you can reduce your monthly costs.

Let’s take a look at what goes into your EWEB bill and what you get for your money.

As a customer-owned utility, EWEB does not operate to earn a profit. You own EWEB – not wealthy investors or shareholders.

That means that unlike an investor-owned utility, there are no profit margins or shareholder dividends built into your EWEB rates. Electric and water prices are based on the costs to:

1. Operate and maintain the electric and water systems
2. Invest in system improvements that make your services better
3. Protect natural resources near our facilities, and
4. Maintain the financial health of the utility

As an EWEB customer, the average rate for a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity is about 10 cents. Put another way, you could power an energy-efficient 9-watt LED light bulb for more than 1,000 hours for only a dollar. You could watch around 250 hours of TV or charge an electric bike 15 times. Where else can you get that kind of value?

How much food, coffee or medicine will $1 buy? How far would you get with a dollar of gas?

And what about your smartphone? Using EWEB’s price of about 10 cents per kWh, you can fully charge your iPhone more than 1,800 times for $1. That means you can charge your phone once every day of the year for about 20 cents total.

The cost of water is even less. Using EWEB’s price of about $1.50 per 1,000 gallons you could take 39 showers, run your dishwasher 190 times, water more than 1,000 square feet of lawn—all for less than $1.

The average EWEB residential customer pays about $6 per day to power their entire home and about $2 per day for water. Considering how much we depend on clean, reliable power and water 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year, that’s a great value.

EWEB’s prices for power and water are comparable to or less than state, regional and national averages.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are fortunate to have access to some of the cleanest power in the nation.

About 90 percent of EWEB’s annual energy comes from carbon-free resources and we’re committed to doing even better.

In January 2022, the Board of Commissioners approved a Climate Change Policy (PDF) that targets over 95 percent of annual energy from carbon-free resources by 2030.

That means that your rates support a grid that’s getting greener over time.

Learn how we're planning for EWEB's long-term energy needs.

The clean, safe water and electricity we all rely on would not be possible without the infrastructure that delivers it.

From power plants to distribution and transmission lines, substations and transformers, pipes, reservoirs and pump stations — utility infrastructure is a complex system that requires investment and maintenance to provide constant, reliable power and water.

EWEB plans for major infrastructure investments through our Capital Improvement Plan, a 10-year plan for rehabilitating, replacing or installing new infrastructure. 

To meet the current and future needs of our community and ensure reliable service, some of the major projects we’re planning and budgeting for include:

• Rebuilding substations to increase capacity and improve reliability
• Investing in updated meter technology to reduce costs and improve service
• Implementing wildfire safety and prevention programs
• Building a water treatment plant on the Willamette River to improve the resiliency of our water supply 
• Upgrading the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project 
• Upgrading and supplementing water storage tanks
• Addressing the structural vulnerabilities of the Leaburg Canal 

The prices you pay are meant to promote efficient use of water and electricity and to ensure that EWEB adequately covers our costs in a way that is fair, stable and affordable to customers.

There are three main activities associated with setting customer rates:

1. Determining a revenue requirement: How much does EWEB need to collect from customers in a year to cover costs associated with running the utility?
2. Allocating the revenue requirement: How do we ensure various customer classes (residential, business, large industrial, etc.) pay their fair share of the cost for getting water and power to their homes and facilities?
3. Establishing rates: How do we set prices that reflect the fixed and variable costs of providing services and incentivize customers to use electricity and water wisely?

EWEB begins the rate-setting process annually every spring.

Through a series of public meetings, your elected Board of Commissioners provides direction on spending for major capital projects and potential price changes for customers.

During the summer and fall, EWEB staff follow that direction from the Board to develop a proposed spending budget for the following year.

The final budget is adopted in December after two public hearings in November and December during which customers are invited to provide testimony on any proposed adjustments.

If you look at your EWEB bill, you will notice different types of charges that make up the total amount owed. These types of charges vary by customer class (residential, commercial, and industrial), but fixed charges (Cost of Basic Service) and volumetric charges (kWh and KGAL) are always present. 

The fixed charge is intended to ensure each customer is paying a fair share of the cost to access electric and water services.

Utility rate setting practices continue to evolve with advancing energy markets and technology.

Looking ahead, we will need to continue to design rate structures that reflect the true costs of providing electric and water services. We’re exploring ways to better align rates with the times of the day when electricity is in highest demand.

Investments in smart meters, coupled with technologies such as electric vehicles and smart home appliances, will change traditional electricity pricing, allowing us to offer more accurate rate structures that provide customers with more choices and control.

One example is real-time pricing. Other utilities have implemented programs where electricity prices vary hourly over the course of the day to reflect fluctuating costs of providing that electricity. When the costs are lower for the utility, the costs are lower for the customer.

Just as prices for electricity can vary hour by hour, so can the carbon content of electricity production. 

Although EWEB's energy portfolio is composed almost entirely of carbon-free power, we are part of a highly integrated regional energy grid that includes coal and natural gas. When the highest ("peak") level of electricity is being used in the region, there is generally more of this carbon-intensive energy on the grid. Prices can be set to reward customers for shifting their energy use to off-peak hours and to take advantage of surplus renewables on the grid.

These are just a few of the possible changes on the horizon. But even as we look at price changes in 2023 and beyond, we are interested in keeping rates as low as possible because we know that our customers value affordability and expect that from us.

Rebates and zero-interest loans can make your home more energy efficient.

Conserving energy and water can reduce your utility costs.

Bill assistance is available to qualifying customers.

Understanding your EWEB statement and tracking usage over time is a key element to managing your bill.