Tag: Water Research Foundation (Page 4 of 5)

Breaking News: Utility Rates have Continued to Increase Over the Last Two Years

December 4, 2012 / Matt Harris

Guest Author Rocky Craley is a Senior Consultant at Raftelis Financial Consultants.

Breaking News: Utility rates have continued to increase over the last two years, according to the 2012 Water and Wastewater Rate Survey. That’s the highest-level survey summary, which is (admittedly) not very groundbreaking. But digging into the national rate survey provides a little more information than that – actually, quite a bit more. Surveys such as this provide insights into the water and wastewater industry that enable utility executives, staff and other industry professionals to benchmark rates and key utility metrics against peer utilities. Utilities also use survey data as supplemental information to convey the state of the industry and effectively educate decision makers.

Don’t Chicken Out on Financial Policies

November 20, 2012 / Stacey Berahzer

Stacey Isaac Berahzer is a Senior Project Director for the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, and works from a satellite office in Georgia.

We recently facilitated the first “Peer2Peer Exchange” where utility officials from ten of our partner water utilities on a Water Research Foundation project shared stories about their financial policies. To get discussions kicked off, we asked folks which came first, the “well-managed, financially sound utility” (the chicken) or the “financial policy” (the egg).

The Role of Rates in Ratings

November 8, 2012 / Mary Tiger

Mary Tiger is the Chief Operating Officer of the Environmental Finance Center. Christine Boyle was a Post-Doctorate Fellow of the Environmental Finance Center. Thanks also to the direction and analysis provided by Jeff Hughes and Dayne Batten.

Rising costs, declining demand, and variable sales predicate our research into water utility financial resiliency for the Water Research Foundation. As part of our investigation into revenue, rate, and financial policy trends, we are researching the processes and methods used by rating agencies and their resulting impact on utility operations. Given the amount of capital needed to bring U.S. utilities’ aging infrastructure up to modern standards, the long-term availability of reasonable-priced credit remains a pressing issue, especially as federal and state subsidies decrease. Our research will focus on credit rating agency research and perspectives as a key source of insight regarding access to debt financing. This blog post highlights the importance rating agencies place on rate setting.

S&P Credit Rating Considerations for 18 Drinking Water Utilities

Potential Savings through Managing Energy Costs at the Water Utility

October 16, 2012 / Stacey Berahzer

Stacey Isaac Berahzer is a Senior Project Director for the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina, and works from a satellite office in Georgia.

In teaching environmental finance we develop many charts and graphics to help illustrate the concepts that we are trying to get across to our audiences. But, it is more heartwarming (and less work!) when a utility itself uses its own data to create a chart that illustrates one of these key concepts so well. The example above is probably one of the graphics most-used by UNC EFC staff, but it was developed by staff at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utility (CMU) a few years ago. In fact, the chart above was featured in one of the first blog posts by our partners at Raftelis Financial Consultants.

Pricing and Revenues: A Challenging Relationship

August 23, 2012 / Jeffrey Hughes

Jeff Hughes is the Director of the Environmental Finance Center and the Principal Investigator for the Water Research Foundation project mentioned in the post.

A recent report estimated that water utilities across the country will need $1,000,000,000,000 (count the zeros…) to cover their infrastructure needs. All signs indicate that most of this revenue is going to come from selling water services, and that as the needs of the industry rise, so too will the need for strategies to increase revenue in a predictable and sustainable manner. A recent analysis of rate and revenue trends indicates that relying on simple price increases on the amount of water sold may be neither a predictable nor sustainable revenue strategy.

Tag: Water Research Foundation (Page 4 of 5)

Breaking News: Utility Rates have Continued to Increase Over the Last Two Years

Don’t Chicken Out on Financial Policies

The Role of Rates in Ratings

Potential Savings through Managing Energy Costs at the Water Utility

Pricing and Revenues: A Challenging Relationship

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