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CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

Water Division

RATE DESIGN FOR WATER AND SEWER SYSTEM UTILITIES

INCLUDING MASTER METERED FACILITIES

Standard Practice U-7-W

San Francisco, California

July 2006

1. The rate schedule number will indicate the class of service as shown in the following tabulation. (These numbers have been selected to correspond generally to the revenue classes in the present uniform system of accounts for water utilities.)

    Schedule

      No . Class of Service

      1. Metered service.

      2. Flat rate service.

      3. Irrigation service.

      4. Private fire protection service.

      5. Public fire hydrant service.

      6. Resale service.

      7. Service to governmental agencies.

      8. Interdepartmental service.

      9. Other water service (such as construction service).

      10. Service to company employees.

2. Where appropriate, the number indicating the class of service will be followed by one or more of the suffixes shown below to further define the type of service covered by the schedule in those situation when the service rendered may be somewhat different than might be expected for the particular type of service.

    Suffix. Type of Service

      A Annual service.

      C Construction service under Schedule 9.

      E Special Charges.

      F Flat rate service for other than service under Schedule 9.

      I Industrial service, under Schedule 9.

      L Limited service, as to area or customers.

      M Measured service for other than service under Schedule 1.

      O Optional service.

      R Residential service.

      S Seasonal service.

      T Treated water (other than service under Schedule 1 or 2) utilized for human consumption.

      U Untreated water for other than irrigation service.

      W Off season or winter irrigation service.

      X Temporary service.

      Z Surplus water sales.

    3. When a tariff area has more than one rate zone (such as a lower and an upper elevation zone) each rate zone will be designated by a single identifying capital letter prefix followed by a hyphen placed ahead of the rate schedule number indicating the class of service. For example, the zone prefixes for the Valley Rate Zone and the Hill Rate Zone could be V- and H-, respectively, followed by the class of service number and, where appropriate, the type of service suffix. If the utility has more than one system, the zone prefix will follow the system prefix.

    4. For a water utility which has different rates established for its separately operated systems (such as districts or divisions of a multi-system utility) the rate schedule numbers applicable to each system will be further codified by use of a system prefix comprising the first two letters of the system's name (tariff area), both capitalized. This prefix will be separated from the remainder of the schedule number designation by a hyphen. If the names of two systems have the same first two letters, the second letters should be changed to other distinguishing letters that will maintain the alphabetical sequence of the full names. For example, the designations for Normandy and Norwalk could be NM and NW.

    5. Where a rate schedule is universally applicable throughout all of the systems of a multi-system or district utility, the schedule number should have the prefix AA (applicable all areas), and the schedule heading should show that it is of general application, as follows:

(i) Schedule No. AA-9FC

(a) All Tariff Areas

(ii) Schedule No. BAC - 3ML

(iii) Bakersfield Tariff Area

(a) Crest Zone

                  (i) LIMITED MEASURED IRRIGATION SERVICE

1 D.60648, August 30, 1960, Crestmore Village Water Company

2 D.328, November 2, 1912, Application No. 212, applicant permitted to substitute a meter rate in place of the existing flat rate charges, applicant originally to bear the cost of installing meters.

3 Water Code, Section 110

4 D.608, April 25, 1913, Finding of Fact 1.

5 If the utility can show that all residences are vacation homes and used only a few days per year, the staff may continue to allow flat rate service.

6 This requires at least some metered customers, so metered usage can be compared to flat rate usage.

7 Order Instituting Investigation I.84-11-041

8 Memorandum to all Water Branch Technical Personnel dated December 9, 1986 from Wes Franklin, Chief, Water Utilities Branch, Subj: Rate Design Policy Established by D.86-05-064.

9 D. 92-03-093, March 31, 1992, O.P. 6. Class A companies serve over 10,000 service connections, class B 2001 through 10,000, class C 501 through 2000 and class D 500 service connections or less.

10 D.99-10-064, October 21, 1999, Appendix D, para. 3.03 B

11 January 18, 1991 Water Utilities Branch letter, "Rate Design Policy -- Service Charge allocation by meter size"

12 see D.52450 dated January 4, 1956 in A.36896; D.52903 dated April 17, 1956 in A.37103; and D.58250 dated April 7, 1959 in A.40517

13 D.66729, January 28, 1964 in A.45164

14 Memorandum to Water Branch Staff from Fred L. Curry dated January 18, 1991, Subject: Rate Design Policy - Service charge allocation by meter size.

15 If the utility is installing ¾ inch meters on normal residential service either because it cannot purchase 5/8 by ¾ inch meters or because it has chosen to do so, the ratio for ¾ inch meters should be 1.0.

16 If the local fire protection agency or County is requiring sprinkler systems in new homes and if the only reason for the larger meter is to provide adequate flow to the sprinkler system, then thcalculate a surcharge on the 5/8 x ¾ rate using Appendix C.

17 D.01-07-026, July 12, 2001, Appendix A, para. 2.1

18 See also D.54818, April 9, 1957 in A.36646 and D.60648, August 30, 1960 in A.41961

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