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Replacement Well Excluded From Rate Base
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1995.tb06324.x
Subject(s) - commission , corporation , test (biology) , business , service (business) , operations management , engineering , finance , marketing , paleontology , biology
Litchfield Park Service Company (LPSCO) is an Arizona corporation authorized to provide water and sewer services. In 1991, LPSCO filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission an application seeking permanent increases in its water and sewer rates based on a 1990 calendar test year. LPSCO's Town Well 1 was drilled and had been in use since 1946. It was removed from service in March 1990, three months into the test year, and retired the following summer. Construction of its replacement well 23a, began in 1991; well 23a became fully operational in June 1992. The commission excluded the well from its fair‐value rate base for the water division, effectively assigning it a zero fair value. LPSCO argued the commission acted arbitrarily in excluding well 23A. The appellate court affirmed the commission's decision to exclude well 23A from the rate base because the well was not necessary to serve LPSCO's customers.