I live on a small island in Iceland, too far across the sea to pipe Geothermal water to, so the town heats water electrically and pipes it to homes instead. It's not very efficient, and it is rather expensive. It's kind of interesting because there just aren't hot water heaters for sale here, and Icelandic homes are built with that assumption.

I'm on the far side of the island from the plant, and in winter you can absolutely tell the difference in water temperature. In summer months there's an anti-scald unit in every home that's necessary to prevent it being too hot, but in winter sometimes you end up with rather lackluster showers.

Is that because of heat losses getting to you, or because enough heat is being used to heat the houses that the overall temp is lower?

I would have to imagine heat loss in transit, as it's not a problem anywhere else other than the far side. The plant itself has a lot of waste heat and not boiling too much water is a concern.