2025 Orange County Water Demand Projection Model
were standardized into four demand sectors, and how water use per account was standardized to yield monthly use per account accounting for differences in billing cycles.
2.1.1
Standardized Agency Billing Sectors
Retail agencies provided billing and account data organized by each agency’s own internal billing classifications. Billing classifications were relatively consistent across retail agencies for defining residential water use, as most retail agencies characterized separate classifications for single-family and multifamily sectors. Water use of mobile home and other housing customer classes not associated with single-family detached structures was generally found to be similar to water use rates within the multifamily sector. Billing classifications were less consistent in describing non-residential uses. Most agencies defined a commercial billing classification; however, the distinction and definition of industrial, institutional, and irrigation classes were inconsistent across retail agencies. For example, certain retail agencies include industrial or institutional uses within their commercial billing classification. Similarly, landscape use is not necessarily limited to a single end use, and not all retailers reported irrigation use as a class. Water billed within a landscape or irrigation category could represent use at commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential properties. Uncertainty and inconsistency in retail agency definitions of commercial, industrial, and institutional water use can affect the accuracy and performance of statistical demand models. To address this, the commercial, industrial, and institutional sectors were combined into an aggregate Commercial, Industrial, Institutional (CII) sector for modeling.
Table 2-2 provides the general breakdown of sector classifications across MWDOC agencies.
Table 2-2: Summary of Standardized Water Use Sectors
Standardized Water Use Sector (Modeled Sector)
Description
Single-family
Water use associated with single-family residential homes.
Water use associated with multifamily residential properties. Multifamily use shows less seasonal variation than single-family use due to shared irrigable area per dwelling unit and some multifamily irrigation is likely to be attributed to the irrigation class. Multifamily use generally includes all residential accounts not defined as single-family Water use associated with commercial developments, industrial applications, and institutional activity. CII use includes non-irrigation recycled uses. Water use associated with outdoor (typically non-residential) and agricultural irrigation. This irrigation use includes recycled water for irrigation. Other water use includes classifications not well represented by the water use sectors above (including fire flows, temporary meters, construction, power uses, water loss, and other small miscellaneous uses).
Multifamily
CII (Commercial, Industrial, Institutional)
Irrigation
Other
2-3
Appendix G - 22
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