Specifically, we looked for utilities that bill customers monthly, have defined customer classes (e.g. For the study, we targeted utilities with billing practices that would give us enough detail regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on water consumption and revenues. Our research team received data for water consumption and billed revenues from five water utilities (Columbus Water Works, GA Denver Water, CO the City of Raleigh, NC Trabuco Canyon Water District, CA and Marana Water, AZ) spanning from January 2017 through April 2020. Importantly, our data reflect billed revenue, not actual revenue delinquency or nonpayment rates remain a significant source of uncertainty for water utilities. Annual rate increases and steady or increasing residential consumption results in billed revenue that appears to offset effects of the COVID-19 shutdowns. In general, residential customers are using water in similar amounts to previous years, and often more – one utility saw an increase in residential consumption of 14% in April 2020 compared to the average of the past three years. In general, that is good news – from these preliminary data, COVID-19 does not appear to be causing a ground shift in all water utility consumption and revenues. For some utilities, consumption and revenues remained similar to previous years. Some utilities saw a decline in primarily non-residential consumption of up to 19% and non-residential billed revenue of up to 8% in April, one full month into the pandemic, relative to April usage and revenue in the past three years. show variable impacts to consumption and billed revenue in response to the global pandemic. Preliminary data from five water utilities of different sizes and different climates across the U.S. Check back for updates as we receive more data from utilities and continue our analysis of this important topic. This is an ongoing study: these are preliminary results from five water utilities. Raftelis has partnered with researchers at Duke University to track the effects of COVID-19 on water utility consumption and revenues. Luke Eastman (Raftelis), Erika Smull (Duke University), Lauren Patterson, PhD (Duke University), and Martin Doyle, PhD (Duke University)
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