Community Development Authority of the City of Racine and Department of City Development
The City of Racine is served by several utilities providing essential services. This includes the city for water, storm sewer and sanitary sewer service and We Energies for electrical and natural gas. AT&T and Spectrum (Time Warner) are the major telecommunications providers. The following list of contact information has been established from each utility’s information and is subject to change.
We Energies provides electricity and natural gas throughout the region and plans to invest $3.5 billion on infrastructure projects and renewable energy initiatives through 2022. In the last five years, the utility invested $4.8 billion on new coal plants in Oak Creek and a new natural gas power plant in Port Washington to improve electric reliability for area business and residential clients. The emission-control technology used in the two 615-megawatt generating units in Oak Creek makes them the cleanest coal-fueled units in the United States. We Energies’ total generation has expanded to approximately 8,300 megawatts. Average utility rates are $0.131110/KwH for electrical and $0.39/therm for natural gas (2017).
Spectrum (Time Warner) and AT&T provide cable, internet and telephone service.
The City of Racine offers a multitude of telecommunications options. AT&T is the area’s largest local-access service provider, followed by Spectrum, which provides extensive cable-based telecommunications services throughout the region. Other area providers include US Sprint, T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Boost, Dish Network and DirecTV. A complete list of all telecommunications providers serving the area is available through The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. Download speeds regularly top 75Mbps/sec and uploads register at 8 Mbps/second.
The City of Racine is the provider for these basic services. Racine’s proximity to Lake Michigan, the sixth largest fresh-water lake in the world, provides businesses with an abundant and reliable source of water. The Racine Water Utility offers water-intensive industries an abundant supply of treated water at a reliable pressure. Today the Racine Water Utility serves 120,000 consumers in the Racine Metropolitan Area. The current service area includes all of Racine County east of I-94. The rate structure can be accessed here.
New or expanded water service requires the Residential Equivalent Connection fee (REC) or Impact Fee. A REC is a measure of water usage expressed in terms of the amount of water used by a typical residential household, which is set as 72,000 gallons of water on an annual basis. Once purchased, RECs become a REC credit and remain with the properties. If the Racine Water Utility provided water service to a property prior to the implementation of the REC fee structure, the average annual water usage for the most recent use is assigned as a REC credit. New REC fees for properties with new or expanded uses are determined on the difference between the projected water usage and the annual average water use for which the initial Impact Fee was paid. If the new use or occupancy uses less water, then no additional Impact Fee will apply. If the new use or occupancy uses more water than water served to the property previously, then additional Impact Fees (REC fees) apply.
Additional information regarding the Water Utility and for calculating Impact fees is available by following the links below.
The Racine Wastewater Utility operates the City of Racine Wastewater Treatment facility. The facility’s hydraulic capacity is an Average Daily Flow of 36 MGD, Peak Hourly Flow of 108 MGD and a wet weather optimization process flow of 308 MGD. Every day about 20 million gallons are treated and released into Lake Michigan. The Racine Wastewater Utility operates a methane gas recovery system in its digesters. This gas is used to supplement facility operation. On average, 46,000 gallons of sludge are pumped every day to the digesters and the methane gas production averages 200,000 cubic feet per day.