Bend reviews three-year conservation pilot, weighs budget-based water rates

City of Bend water conservation staff on the WAG meeting recapped 2024 program results, said the city is wrapping a three‑year pilot of incentive measures and will run updated demand projections, and asked the advisory group for input on exploring budget‑based rate structures.

Dan Denning, Water Conservation Manager, told the Water Advisory Group that 2024 was “a big year” for the program and that the city added a turf‑replacement incentive to indoor/outdoor device rebates introduced after adoption of the Water Management Conservation Plan (WMCP). Denning said staff are now analyzing who participates and who they miss, working with the Office of Performance Management and GIS to assess participation by census tracts and other customer characteristics.

The city intends to re‑run earlier demand modeling used in the WMCP to see how actual savings compared to prior projections and to identify program adaptations. “We’re going to rerun that model and see how close we were,” Denning said, noting the consultant engagement that will handle modeling and a separate effort to research conservation‑oriented rate options.

Carlos Bustos, senior…