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Public Utilities shows bill explainer and new online rate tool to help customers estimate bills
Summary
Public Utilities played a bill explainer video and demonstrated an online rate tool that lets customers enter meter size, consumption and billing period to estimate water, sewer and combined charges; council asked staff to add clearer bill callouts, videos and targeted education about usage impacts on low‑income households.
Salt Lake City Public Utilities presented a short explainer video and live demonstration of an online rate tool on May 28 designed to help residents understand charges on their utility bills and estimate how changes in usage or rate structure affect their bills.
The video walked through typical bill elements—service fee (based on meter size), volume/usage charges (tiered to encourage conservation), sewer flow charges based on average winter consumption, stormwater fees (based on property runoff), street lighting charges by neighborhood, and a 6% franchise fee that supports city services.
Jesse Stewart and outreach staff demonstrated the rate tool with redacted real bills and several examples. "The service fee is based on your water meter size. The usage charge is based on how much water you use," staff said, showing single‑family and multifamily examples that produced different impacts depending on summertime outdoor water use and how winter average flow is calculated.
Council members raised accessibility and equity concerns: several asked that the tool and the bill itself clearly label meter size and winter consumption so customers can easily populate the calculator; others asked for concrete, actionable comparisons (for example how many gallons a shower or lawn watering session represents) to help low‑income residents estimate how small changes affect monthly costs. One council member said, "in my neighborhood $5 a month will make the difference between if a senior is able to have protein in a meal or not," urging the city to focus outreach.
Staff agreed to add clearer bill callouts, consider an accompanying short video or side‑by‑side visuals on the tool page, and tailor pages that translate unit measures (CCF) into gallons and household activities. They noted that full automation (pre‑populating a resident’s meter size or consumption from billing records) would be difficult with the current billing system but customer service can assist users.
Next steps: staff will refine the online tool, add explanatory callouts and conservation guidance, and expand outreach and education to help residents understand and manage bills under the new rate structure.
