Helping ensure equitable and transparent rate- and fee-setting on behalf of Agency customers

The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water) is located in the northwestern portion of Los Angeles County and approximately 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The majority of the service area is located in LA County, encompassing most of the valley and adjacent hill country along the upper Santa Clara River. SCV Water was created in 2018 by merging three water agencies in the Santa Clarita Valley. The new agency serves a population of 273,000 through 70,000 retail water connections.

In an effort to facilitate transparency, SCV Water retained RDN as the Rate-Payer Advocate to consult and evaluate proposed rate changes made by SCV Water. In this capacity, RDN works on behalf of Agency customers to evaluate the equitability of proposed rate changes and ensure Agency accountability. We leveraged our econometric and data visualization capabilities to accurately review and communicate the Agency’s proposed changes. One such data visualization tool is our bill impact calculator, which calculates the impact of proposed rates on each individual customer’s bill based on historical usage patterns. The new rates were successfully adopted in June 2021.

RDN also reviewed and evaluated the capacity charges developed by SCV Water for their accuracy and equitability to existing and new customers. We leveraged our econometric expertise to project demand and account growth for the planning period and used  Monte  Carlo  Simulations to gauge the range of potential development in the community for the next 30 years.  The Facility Capacity Charges were approved by the Board of Directors in February 2020.