Tag: water utility finance (Page 1 of 10)

Ongoing Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Conditions on North Carolina’s Water and Wastewater Utilities

February 5, 2021 / Elsemarie Mullins / 3 Comments

Over the past 6 months*, the EFC has continued to investigate how utilities across NC are faring as the ongoing pandemic continues to create a variety of challenges related to revenue and operations. The big picture takeaway is that some things are improving while some things remain the same. Many utilities continue to feel a variety of impacts from COVID-19 on utility revenues and practices, some utilities are transitioning to pre-pandemic billing practices, and some utilities will be providing funds for bill payment assistance to customers who have past due bills.

This week, the EFC is releasing a report, funded by the NC Policy Collaboratory, that details some of the on-going impacts on water and wastewater utilities that have resulted from COVID-19 and the implementation of NC’s Executive Orders 124/142, which prohibited disconnection of residential customers and mandated the establishment of payment plans. As part of its research, the EFC interviewed staff from 16 different utilities and collected survey responses from a total of 34 utilities between August and December 2020. This research included utilities across the state that varied in size from 42-300,000 accounts and which had a wide variety of financial health characteristics.

What 10 Years of Georgia Water Utility Data can Reveal

April 3, 2018 / Claudia Flores / 0 Comments

Co-author Neil Sullivan is a Rates Specialist at the Environmental Finance Center.

Since 2007, the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been conducting water and wastewater rate surveys in Georgia. With support from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority and other organizations^[1], the EFC at UNC has collected a decade worth of rates data. Each year this data allows the us to create water and wastewater Rates Dashboards. This free tool helps utility staff analyze and weigh their current rates against different indicators to better inform future rate settings. Additionally, this data reveals important trends in how Georgia utilities manage their finances. Read on to see how the landscape of water and wastewater rates has transformed in the past decade:

Are Utilities that Need to Raise Rates Actually Raising Rates?

March 2, 2017 / Shadi Eskaf / 0 Comments

What happens if a water utility collects less in revenues than it pays in expenditures in one year? It will raise some alarms, but some utilities might be able to weather that shortfall by dipping into their reserves and bounce back the following year. But what happens if a water utility collects less in revenues than it pays in expenditures in three consecutive years? That is probably a strong indication that the rates it is charging its customers are too low. Assuming that expenses cannot be significantly reduced, a rate increase is almost certainly necessary. So are utilities in this position raising rates the following year, or are there obstacles that may be chronically preventing the adoption of rate increases? In this post, I analyze ten years of financial and rates data from hundreds of North Carolina utilities to explore this question.

Four Factors that Allow One Utility to Provide Financial Assistance to People Who Don’t Even Have a Water Account

September 15, 2016 / Stacey Berahzer / 0 Comments

When setting rates, most water and wastewater utilities are concerned (at least to some extent) about whether their customers can afford the resulting bills. Many utilities are also wondering how they can assist the poorest segments of their customer base with the cost of water/wastewater service. However, a frustrating problem is that a lot of low income people live in multifamily housing, such as apartments, and do not actually have an account with the water utility. Even though they don’t receive a bill directly, these tenants are paying for the water/wastewater service indirectly via their rent. So some utility managers have been grappling with effective ways to provide assistance to these water users. Different theories involving vouchers etc. have been espoused, but one utility seems to have actually solved the problem.

What Drives Public-Private Partnerships and the Risks to Be Aware of

July 2, 2015 / Mary Tiger / 1 Comment

As the nation struggles to repair, maintain, and expand its infrastructure, public-private partnerships are gaining traction as a strategy for delivering traditionally “public” services. Public-private partnerships (or P3s) are touted on the idea that public projects can benefit from the private sector’s increased competition, more accurate pricing, expanded financing options, and more flexible personnel and procurement processes. In return, the private sector is given the opportunity to access a market otherwise served by the public. It can be a mutually beneficial relationship.

Tag: water utility finance (Page 1 of 10)

Ongoing Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Conditions on North Carolina’s Water and Wastewater Utilities

What 10 Years of Georgia Water Utility Data can Reveal

Are Utilities that Need to Raise Rates Actually Raising Rates?

Four Factors that Allow One Utility to Provide Financial Assistance to People Who Don’t Even Have a Water Account

What Drives Public-Private Partnerships and the Risks to Be Aware of

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