RFAs: Understanding the Practices, Policies, and Impacts of System Development Fees and Upgrade Requirements

Published Date: September 13, 2024

Application Deadline: November 14, 2024

Program Overview

The Water Research Foundation (WRF) is inviting proposals for the program Understanding the Practices, Policies, and Impacts of System Development Fees and Upgrade Requirements. This initiative aims to evaluate various financial methods for collecting development fees and the impact of different fee methodologies on utilities and customers.

Methodologies to Investigate

Proposers should investigate at least the following four methodologies:

• Buy-In Approach: New customers pay an amount per connection, representing equity in the utility system attributed to existing customers.
• Incremental Cost Approach: New customers pay their embedded share of expansion costs per connection.
• Combined System or Hybrid Approach: New customers pay for their share of both existing and new capacity costs.
• No Fee Approach: The utility collects no direct development fees, and costs are covered by the existing rate base or state/federal funding.

Project Objectives

The project aims to:

• Identify states with legislation governing system development fees.
• Analyze different fee methodologies and their effects on ratepayers and new customers.
• Evaluate pros/cons of various financial methods for fee collection.
• Compare pay-as-you-go approaches with depreciation accounting and ratemaking practices.

Funding Information

The maximum funding from WRF for this project is $175,000. Applicants must contribute at least 33% of the requested project funds (e.g., if requesting $100,000, an additional $33,000 or more must be provided).

Expected Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected:

• Research Report
• Literature Review
• Case Studies
• Utility Survey Results
• Webcast
• Optional: White Paper, Conference Presentations

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants include U.S. and non-U.S.-based entities such as educational institutions, research organizations, government agencies, consultants, and for-profit organizations. Researchers with ongoing WRF studies that are delayed without approved extensions are not eligible.

How to Apply

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in applying, visit the Water Research Foundation website for more details on the application process and submission guidelines.

For more information, visit the Water Research Foundation (WRF).