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New Berlin staff: Milwaukee’s 3% wholesale increase can be absorbed; larger 2027 rate case could prompt passthrough
Summary
A staff update to the New Berlin Utility Committee outlined a Milwaukee Water Works simplified 3% rate increase effective Aug. 1, 2025, which the city expects to absorb. Staff warned a later conventional Milwaukee rate case, likely taking effect in early 2027, could be larger and may trigger a purchase-water adjustment for customers.
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…
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