A staff member for the City of New Berlin told the Utility Committee that Milwaukee Water Works has filed a simplified rate case that would raise wholesale water costs by 3% and take effect Aug. 1, 2025, and that New Berlin’s preliminary budget can absorb the increase without raising local rates.

The update explained why the filing matters to customers: utilities can pursue three forms of PSC-regulated adjustments — a conventional rate case, a simplified rate case that “allows us to increase rates by a flat 3%,” or a purchase-water adjustment that passes through a wholesale supplier’s conventional-rate increase to retail customers. The staff member said the simplified option is available only within seven years after a utility’s last conventional rate case.

At a March meeting of wholesale customers, Milwaukee Water Works told purchasers it would pursue a simplified rate case, staff said. On June 5 New Berlin received a letter saying Milwaukee had submitted its petition to the Public Service Commission on May 13, and that Milwaukee set an effective date of Aug. 1, 2025. The staff member estimated the change would increase New Berlin’s costs by about $48,000 to $53,000 per year.

The staff member said New Berlin completed its own conventional rate case in April of last year, which means New Berlin cannot use a purchase-water adjustment for Milwaukee’s simplified filing. Instead, the city could pursue its own simplified 3% filing, but staff said that is not planned now because the city believes it can absorb the Milwaukee increase.

Staff also said Milwaukee intends to pursue a conventional rate case after the simplified filing is complete; staff reported the Public Service Commission told Milwaukee it would need to supply two full years of service to Waukesha Water before that conventional case. Staff said the conventional case would likely take effect in early 2027 and that conventional cases often seek larger increases — staff estimated “in the, like, early teens, like, 10, 11, 13%” as a typical range.

Because a purchase-water adjustment is allowed only when the wholesale supplier completes a conventional rate case, staff said the city’s likely future response is to monitor Milwaukee’s conventional filing and consider a purchase-water adjustment at that time. The staff member told the committee they expect to know more by mid-2026 to inform budgeting for 2027.

A committee member asked whether Waukesha’s utility capacity would affect costs; the staff member said Waukesha’s larger supply could lower Waukesha’s operating costs but that it did not appear to reduce Milwaukee’s planned increases. No formal action on rates was taken by the committee; the only recorded formal action on the agenda was a motion to adjourn, which passed with an affirmative voice vote recorded.