LPC recommends that you do NOT include any City of Longmont fees or construction costs for electric service, including the building permit, in your project bids. Electric fees and construction costs vary depending upon the project. If you contact LPC’s engineering staff before providing job costs to your customer, we will:
- Provide you with Electric Community Investment Fee (ECIF) costs and a rough estimate of LPC construction costs
- Help your customers avoid unnecessary costs
- Help your customers understand full project costs
Cost components
LPC follows the City’s policy that growth will pay its own way, which ensures that the cost of development and infrastructure is not passed on to customers through their electric rates. This policy may result in development costs that are higher than neighboring utilities but it also has allowed LPC to consistently have lower rates than nearby utilities.
Generally, you will pay three costs to LPC and these may be billed at different times during your project.
Electric Community Investment Fee (ECIF)
The ECIF is collected by the City’s Building Inspection Division as part of the building permit application. For projects outside city limits that do not require a City building permit, LPC will collect this fee with the line extension charges. The fee is intended to recover the costs of the utility system capacity necessary to serve your new or upgraded service. It is similar to a tap fee for a water utility, and it covers LPC costs for substations and main feeders in the system.
The fee is based on the capacity rating of the service panel and is usually determined by your consulting engineer or the electrician on your project. The panel capacity is usually dictated by the National Electric Code, but sometimes the design may include spare capacity for possible future use. Any spare capacity will result in a larger ECIF so be very clear about your long-term site requirements and associated costs. The fee structure assumes that service panels rarely get loaded to full capacity. In fact, most services are discounted by 70% or more to reflect average customer use. The ECIF is based upon the panel rating–not the fuses or breakers within the panel, which can be easily changed.
Electric service line extension costs
These are based on the specific service extension design for your project–the cables, trenching, connections and transformers needed to serve your site. Although some utilities calculate extension costs using lot area or front footage and average cost values, LPC develops a cost estimate specific to your development design needs. LPC Engineering will complete a design for your project in four to eight weeks of your request, depending upon project type and scope. The estimated project cost must be paid before LPC will schedule the work. Once the design is completed and payment is received, the project will be released to LPC construction crews. It may take up to eight weeks to schedule the crew on your site, depending upon work load and site readiness.
Metering and connection costs
These Meter-Connect Charges cover time and materials for meter installation and permanent connection to the electric distribution system. Metering equipment is combined with the service entrance equipment on your building that the electrician installs. When your service entrance has been inspected and approved by the electrical inspector, LPC metering staff will receive a release from Building Inspection and will schedule the connection of the metering equipment. For small services, this can be as simple as setting the meter and checking connections. Large services can incorporate metering transformers and multiple connections. The charge for metering and connections originates from a standard fee schedule and is based on the panel capacity of your service. Commercial charges are billed at the conclusion of the meter set and connections. Residential charges are billed with line extension costs. Fees are updated when significant material changes occur and annually on January 1 with increases in labor and equipment rates.
