Public Infrastructure

Kentucky provides a competitive advantage for utility costs with some of the lowest utility rates in the United States. Northern Kentucky has all the resources in place to deliver a high level of service for all types of users. Utility providers work closely with the business community to ensure needs are met and downtime is avoided across all of Northern Kentucky’s public infrastructure.

Kentucky’s utility providers, with oversight by the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), ensure competitive public infrastructure rates for the consumer. Average annual utility costs and tariff rates for individual providers are available from the PSC at www.psc.ky.gov.

With an average industrial price of 7.41 cents per kilowatt hour, Kentucky’s industrial electric costs were 11% lower than the national average in 2022. The state’s industrial sector electric power costs ranked 18th lowest among the 50 U.S. States and District of Columbia, while the state’s average retail price for all sectors ranked 20th lowest. (Source: US Energy Information Administration EIA-861 Annual Electric Power Industry Report)

Duke Energy’s Ohio and Kentucky operations provide safe, reliable and competitively priced electricity to more than 840,000 customers, including retail gas service to more than 525,000 customers. The service territory of this public infrastructure spans seven Ohio counties and five Northern Kentucky counties – making up the heart of the Greater Cincinnati Region. A combination of baseload and peaking facilities allows Duke Energy to serve its customers at rates below the national average.

Owen Electric Cooperative (OEC) is a consumer-owned electric distribution corporation, serving most of the nine north-central Kentucky counties, including the suburban and rural areas of the three-county Northern Kentucky area. Service reliability, along with benchmark efficiency, have allowed OEC to reduce rates in excess of 16% since 1983.

The primary source of sewerage treatment service in Northern Kentucky is the Sanitation District No. 1 (SD1), serving municipalities and unincorporated areas in Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties. SD1 operates three major wastewater treatment facilities and several smaller wastewater treatment plants.

Natural gas service in Northern Kentucky is provided by Duke Energy Kentucky.

The primary supplier of natural gas to Duke Energy is Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation. However, Duke Energy is connected to additional public infrastructure that includes six major interstate pipelines, extending the company’s sources to all major producing regions in the United States and Canada.

TL Rate – Available to any customer who enters into a written agreement and has arranged for delivery of gas into the company’s system for the customer’s sole use at point of delivery where distribution mains are adjacent to premises to be served.

IT Rate – Available to any customer who enters into a written agreement and uses a minimum of 10,000 CCF per month for seven consecutive billing periods and has arranged for delivery where distribution mains are adjacent to premises to be served.

The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region is ringed with fiber optics, the underlying infrastructure that enables this region to be one of the most wired communities in the world. Along with AltaFiber (formerly Cincinnati Bell) and Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable business class), there are 19 other communications providers in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region providing excellent public infrastructure and service to business and residential customers.

Northern Kentucky Water District and Boone County Water District are the primary providers of water in the region.

Northern Kentucky Water District – Rates

The primary source of treated water in Northern Kentucky is the Northern Kentucky Water District, serving municipalities and unincorporated areas in Campbell and Kenton counties, as well as parts of Boone County.

The Northern Kentucky Water District draws raw water from the Ohio River and the Licking River. The total filter capacity is 54,000,000 gallons per day with an average daily consumption of 32,000,000 gallons.

Water delivery systems are installed and maintained by the various municipalities and water districts. Rates and storage capacities will vary with the final distributor. The quality of water is maintained throughout the public infrastructure in the three-county area.

Boone County Water District

Boone County Water District and the City of Florence obtain water from the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) through the Boone-Florence Water Commission. The source of this water, treated by GCWW, is the Ohio River. This contract provides a capacity of 30,000,000 gallons per day, while average daily consumption is 7,100,000 gallons.