The new bill is a complete overhaul of the previous bill, which was based on an 18 year-old design. The bill’s wholesale improvements include a larger paper size for reading ease, easy-to-locate charge summaries and payment due dates, convenient color shading of LADWP and City of Los Angeles charges, enhanced graphics featuring customer usage history charts, and an integrated customer newsletter with useful conservation tips and information. Each bill will also feature energy and water conservation tips and customer-specific usage information so individual customers can evaluate their efforts to save water, power and money.

“Our goal is to improve customer service at LADWP. Our prior, antiquated bill format failed to give customers the information they need to understand their water and power use and the basis for the costs on the bill,” said Ronald O. Nichols, LADWP General Manager. “With the improved bill format, our customers now can better understand and manage their energy and water use.”

LADWP worked closely with multiple stakeholders while developing and testing the new bill design: the Los Angeles City Council Energy and Environment Committee and numerous Neighborhood Councils provided valuable input in the bill development process while employees from various divisions within the Department and focus groups consisting of LADWP residential and commercial customers consulted on building a new bill that would address the most common customer concerns.

“The new bill responds to the most frequently asked questions from our customers,” said John X. Chen, Assistant General Manager, LADWP Customer Service Division. “More importantly, it brings our ability to communicate with our customers to a new level.”

As LADWP serves as the billing agent for the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation, color coding of LADWP and City of Los Angeles charges will prove useful for differentiating between services. LADWP charges include electric and water charges and City of Los Angeles charges include sewer service, solid resources (trash) and utility tax.

“This is the first step in a longer-term program to update the entire customer information system at LADWP,” said Mr. Nichols. “By 2013, we will have a system that will let us be more responsive to customer needs and inquiries as we replace a 40-year old information system.”

LADWP customers who have paperless billing will notice changes to the online bill immediately. While LADWP bills and envelopes are made with 20% or more post-consumer content recycled paper, all LADWP customers are urged to take advantage of LADWP’s Paperless Billing Service in an effort to reduce the use of natural resources.

To help navigate the new bill, every LADWP customer will receive a copy of the Department’s customer newsletter Connections in English and Spanish, which provides a detailed explanation of the various parts of the new bill. Click here to view a copy of this helpful newsletter. More information about the new bill will be available at all 15 LADWP Customer Service Centers, on the Department website at www.ladwp.com, or by calling 1-800 DIAL DWP.  Commercial customers can call the Commercial Resource Center at 1-800-499-8840 for more information.

About LADWP
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility, provides reliable, low-cost water and power services to Los Angeles residents and businesses in an environmentally responsible manner. LADWP serves about 1.4 million electric customers and 680,000 water customers in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit www.ladwp.com. For the latest news about LADWP, please visit www.ladwpnews.com. Follow the Department on Twitter: @LADWP.

###