Archives for January 2020

Water utilities are providers of life sustaining services that we all rely on. Yet, at least in the United States, water services are taken for granted by many people. Ironically, this is partly due to the tremendous success that water suppliers have had in providing safe and reliable services for so long. Very few people have ever had an experience of turning on their water tap and not receiving clean, safe drinking water. In addition to the general reliability of water services, people see water availability as a human right. We depend on it for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. The oceans, rivers, and streams overflow with water. Water falls from the sky. We are surrounded by water, and this apparent abundance and reliability gives the impression that it should be free, or at least very inexpensive.

[Read more…] about A Multi-Pronged Approach to Water Affordability

The idea of post-paid water services is a first world construct. In order to reliably collect payment for water services after the fact, utilities need to verify customer credit worthiness. This generally means that customers have a bank account, credit card, and a credit history. Steady employment, regular income, and a reliable history of paying bills on time are the general requirements to qualify for any type of service where you pay after the service has been rendered.

[Read more…] about Solving the Uncollectible Water Revenue Conundrum

The workforce in the water industry is aging. More importantly, fewer young people are entering the industry to take over jobs, creating a pending human resource gap to compound the financial resource challenges that many water suppliers currently face. The numbers are substantial. A 2010 report by the Water Research Foundation and the American Water Works Association found that up to 50% of senior utility managers would be eligible for retirement over the next 10 years, leaving a dearth of experienced managers at the helm. This is occurring just as the needs for digital transformation to a smart utility, with a new set of technology and innovation challenges, takes hold.

[Read more…] about Digital Transformation for an Aging Water Workforce

The water industry has seen gradual growth in the adoption of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and related data analytics solutions over the past decade, but that rate of growth has been modest at best. This is somewhat surprising given the well documented benefits of AMI including lower costs, revenue recovery, improved operational efficiency, and increased customer satisfaction. If AMI provides so many advantages to water suppliers and their customers, why isn’t every utility in the country clamoring to implement smart metering? What barriers are discouraging more rapid technology adoption and how, as an industry, do we support each other to overcome these challenges to unlock the power of water data?

[Read more…] about Crossing the Digital Water Divide