The PSC recognizes five primary customer classes for water service, including:
Residential customers includes single-family homes, duplexes, and individually-metered condominiums, apartment buildings, and mobile home parks.
Multifamily Residential customers includes master-metered multifamily dwelling units such as condominiums, apartment buildings, and mobile home parks.
Commercial customers includes business entities and institutions, except governmental entities, that provide goods or services. Churches and parochial schools are not governmental and are classified as commercial.
Industrial customers includes customers who are engaged in the manufacture or production of goods.
Public Authority customers includes any department, agency, or entity of local, state, or federal government, including public schools, colleges, and universities.
In addition, some utilities have chosen to establish a separate class for irrigation-only customers, which typically includes customers who have a separate meter for outdoor water use. This class is defined as follows:
Irrigation customers includes customers who have water service provided primarily for landscape irrigation. For the purpose of this schedule, landscape irrigation includes the use of water to sustain crops, lawns, or landscapes on any residential, multifamily residential, commercial, industrial, or public authority property, including water used for irrigating athletic fields, parks, and golf courses. Irrigation customers include those customers that have multiple meters installed on a single lateral for the purpose of measuring water that is not discharged to the sanitary sewer system. The utility shall classify each additional meter as an irrigation meter and treat each meter as a separate general service customer.