Loveland Water and Power (City of Loveland) Rate Selection Guide
Loveland Water and Power is a community-owned municipal utility serving ~42,375 electric customers in northern Colorado. It completed a citywide AMI deployment in early 2025 ($14M, $5M under budget, a year ahead of schedule), collecting 15-minute interval data with daily uploads to the MyAccount portal — but no Green Button, EDI, or API exists, so third-party access runs through manual downloads, ad-hoc authorized requests, and the Building Performance Colorado benchmarking program for buildings over 50,000 sq ft.
Market Overview
Loveland Water and Power is a community-owned municipal utility; customers take bundled service from the city with seasonal rate periods (Summer July-October, Non-Summer November-June). Colorado's Building Performance Colorado program, administered by the Colorado Energy Office, drives benchmarking data requirements for large commercial buildings.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the Loveland Water and Power (City of Loveland) Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
Loveland Water & Power's electric rates are set annually by City Council resolution and track wholesale costs from Platte River Power Authority. All classes use seasonal pricing — Summer (July–October) rates run meaningfully above Non-Summer (November–June) — and every rate embeds a 7% Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) paid to the city's General Fund. Commercial classes split into Small General Service (SG, energy-only plus a Plant Investment Fee per kWh), Large General Service (LG, with 15-minute demand billing), Primary Service with customer-owned transformer (PT), Commercial EV Charging (CEV with a deeply discounted demand charge), and a Coincident Peak Demand schedule for sophisticated large loads. The 2026 resolution raised rates ~5.9% on average across classes.
Effective: January 1, 2026 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SG – Small General Service | commercial | Non-residential single-phase ($31.17/month base) and three-phase ($41.94/month base) accounts without demand billing | Seasonal energy: $0.13049/kWh non-summer, $0.16204/kWh summer (incl. PILT) plus ~$0.01016/kWh Plant Investment Fee; no demand charge | $0.13049–$0.16204/kWh seasonal |
| LG – Large General Service | commercial | Larger commercial accounts with demand metering (15-minute interval billing demand) | $224.56/month base; energy $0.06639/kWh non-summer, $0.07989/kWh summer (incl. PILT) plus Plant Investment Fee per kWh; seasonal demand charge; power factor charge may apply | $0.06639–$0.07989/kWh seasonal+ $15.75/kW non-summer, $21.55/kW summer |
| PT – Primary Service (Customer-Owned Transformer) | industrial | Large loads taking delivery at primary voltage with customer-owned transformation | $274.84/month base; energy $0.06451/kWh non-summer (incl. PILT) plus $0.00988/kWh Plant Investment Fee; seasonal demand charge; power factor charge passes through 100% of city-incurred cost | $0.06451/kWh non-summer+ $14.65/kW non-summer (higher in summer) |
| CEV – Commercial EV Charging Station Service | ev | Commercial EV charging stations; base charge tiers at ≤50 kW single-phase ($31.17), ≤50 kW three-phase ($41.94), and >50 kW ($224.56) | Energy $0.09502/kWh non-summer, $0.11273/kWh summer (incl. PILT) plus $0.00988/kWh Plant Investment Fee with a reduced $4.43/kW demand charge — roughly a quarter of the LG demand rate; self-generation variant (CEV-Self Gen) available | $0.09502–$0.11273/kWh seasonal+ $4.43/kW |
| CP – Coincident Peak Demand Service | industrial | Large customers with primary service and customer-owned facilities willing to manage against system coincident peaks | Customer-specific base, energy, coincident demand, distribution demand, and facilities demand charges built from cost of service and the customer's usage profile; power factor charge applies — see tariff for terms | — |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
Manufacturing and large commercial (demand-billed)
Loveland's manufacturers and big-box loads on LG or PT face their steepest costs July–October, when the demand charge jumps to $21.55/kW and energy climbs ~20%.
The summer/non-summer demand spread ($21.55 vs $15.75/kW on LG) concentrates savings potential in four months. Very large, flexible loads should price out the Coincident Peak schedule, which rewards curtailment at Platte River system peaks; loads with their own transformation save further on PT's lower energy and demand rates.
- Target the 15-minute interval that sets billing demand — stagger compressor, oven, and HVAC starts, especially July–October
- Loads above ~1 MW with curtailment ability should request a Coincident Peak Demand cost-of-service quote
- Maintain power factor — Loveland passes through 100% of the power factor charge it incurs for your service
Retail, restaurants, and offices (Small General)
Storefronts and offices on SG pay no demand charge but face the system's highest commercial energy rates — $0.16204/kWh in summer plus the per-kWh Plant Investment Fee.
With energy-only billing, consumption reduction is the entire game: every kWh saved in summer returns over $0.17 including the Plant Investment Fee. Growing accounts should model whether LG's much lower energy rate ($0.06639–$0.07989) plus demand charges would beat SG.
- Concentrate efficiency spending on cooling — the July–October rate premium makes summer kWh ~24% more expensive
- Accounts with flattening load above ~20–30 kW should ask Loveland to compare SG vs LG billing on actual usage
- Use the portal's usage download to verify savings from lighting and HVAC retrofits seasonally
Fleet electrification and EV charging hosts
Loveland's CEV schedule is one of the more EV-friendly municipal rates on the Front Range: a $4.43/kW demand charge — roughly 25% of the LG rate — removes the classic demand-charge barrier for DC fast charging.
Low-utilization fast chargers are normally killed by demand charges; at $4.43/kW, a 150 kW charger carries about $665/month in demand cost versus ~$2,360–$3,230 under LG — transforming site economics for fleets and charging hosts.
- Meter charging stations separately so they qualify for CEV rather than rolling into the host building's LG account
- Schedule fleet charging into non-summer-rate months and overnight where operationally possible — summer energy runs ~$0.018/kWh higher
- Pairing solar? Ask about the CEV-Self Gen schedule with buyback credits
Cost Optimization Strategies
Loveland's rate design concentrates costs in two places — the summer season (July–October) and the 15-minute demand interval — so optimization is mostly about when and how sharply you draw power. Annual council-set increases (~5.9% for 2026, tracking Platte River wholesale costs) make locked-in efficiency gains compound year over year.
Summer demand management
For: LG, PT, and CP demand-billed accounts
The LG demand charge rises from $15.75 to $21.55/kW in July–October. Pre-cool buildings, stage equipment starts, and deploy battery or thermal storage to clip the worst 15-minute interval during summer months.
Seasonal load shifting
For: All commercial classes with schedulable consumption
Energy rates run ~20% higher July–October across commercial classes. Schedule energy-intensive maintenance, production campaigns, and pool/process heating into the eight non-summer months where the work allows.
Power factor correction
For: LG, PT, and CP accounts with significant inductive load
Loveland bills 100% of the power factor charge it incurs serving you. Capacitor banks on motor-heavy facilities eliminate this pass-through and free up transformer capacity.
Rate schedule optimization at class boundaries
For: Growing small commercial accounts and any site hosting EV charging
The SG/LG crossover depends on load factor: SG charges ~2x the energy rate but no demand. Run both calculations annually on actual interval data — and segregate EV charging onto CEV, whose $4.43/kW demand rate beats every alternative for charging load.
Efficiency and self-generation programs
For: All commercial customers; strongest for high-summer-usage buildings
Loveland (with Platte River Power Authority programs) supports commercial efficiency rebates, and self-generation rate schedules with buyback credits exist for solar-equipped facilities. Every kWh offset avoids energy, Plant Investment Fee, and the embedded 7% PILT.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download Loveland Water and Power (City of Loveland) interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
What interval data does Loveland Water and Power provide?▾
15-minute interval data from the citywide AMI network completed in early 2025 (~40,000 advanced meters). Data uploads daily to the MyAccount portal's Consumption tab, where customers can analyze usage across timeframes, compare against historic temperatures, and download their data. There is no real-time streaming and no third-party export path.
Does Loveland support Green Button, EDI, or an API?▾
No. Loveland is not in the Green Button Directory, has no ESPI or OAuth third-party workflow, supports no EDI transactions, and publishes no API, webhooks, or developer documentation. A new Customer Engagement Portal (RFI 2024-WP1, expected 2026-2027) may improve data access — watch for announcements.
How do consultants get data for buildings over 50,000 sq ft?▾
Through the Building Performance Colorado benchmarking path: the owner obtains a state building ID (starts with 'C') from the Colorado Energy Office, then the owner or designated consultant requests the electric use data file from Conservation, Efficiency and Rebates at 970-962-3000. The file uploads to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager for the building score.
How do third parties access data for smaller commercial accounts?▾
Manually: obtain written customer authorization and submit a data request to Utility Billing (970-962-2111 / UtilityBilling@cityofloveland.org) specifying date range and data type. Responses are file-based (PDF or Excel) with no standardized SLA. Alternatively, the customer downloads usage from the MyAccount Consumption tab and shares the file.
Can commercial customers opt out of AMI metering?▾
No. The AMI opt-out is limited to single-family residential dwellings (and excludes net-metered or delinquent accounts). Commercial and multi-family customers have no opt-out, which means all C&I accounts have 15-minute interval metering.
What does Nectar's roadmap support level mean for Loveland?▾
Loveland is on Nectar's roadmap: automated ingestion is planned but not yet productized. Today, Nectar works with customer-downloaded Consumption tab exports, BPC benchmarking files for large buildings, and authorized manual requests — and is tracking the 2026-2027 Customer Engagement Portal for potential API access.
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