Results from the North Carolina Water and Wastewater Utility Management Survey

Transcription

1 Results from the North Carolina Water and Wastewater Utility Management Survey Webinar August 30, 3018 Carol Rosenfeld Environmental Finance Center at the UNC School of Government Chris Nida North Carolina League of Municipalities

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3 Dedicated to enhancing the ability of governments and other organizations to provide environmental programs and services in fair, effective, and financially sustainable ways through: Applied Research Teaching and Outreach Program Design and Evaluation How you pay for it matters

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5 Poll Who do we have in attendance?

6 OVERVIEW OF THE SURVEY

7 Survey and Study Funded by the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory Objective Enhance North Carolina water and wastewater utilities resiliency to changes that could impair their financial resources and ability to effectively provide services by evaluating long-term planning at utilities and sharing best practices. Project Partner Funder

8 Hypothesis Utilities that undertake more or earlier long-term planning efforts benefit from more resilient finances and improved system performance relative to other utilities.

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10 Planning Efforts Financial plan: a plan to ensure that the performance of the utility fund meets or exceeds identified financial targets and goals. Asset management plan: a long-range plan identifying how the existing assets will be managed, and when they will be replaced or rehabilitated. Capital improvement plan: a plan that identifies capital projects to be completed in the next few years. Disaster / emergency / resiliency plan: identification of risks and vulnerabilities to the utility's functions, and a course of action to mitigate the risks. Long-range water resources plan: an assessment of water supply needs and/or wastewater demands long in the future (more than 10 years) and the ability of the utility to meet those needs.

11 Survey Distribution Electronic (Qualtrics) Distributed to 511 drinking water and wastewater utilities in North Carolina Input from State and local officials Pre-tested the survey Offered incentives 3+ month collection period

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13 Poll Who has taken a look at the results report?

14 Response Rate by Type Out of 511 utilities invited to participate in the survey, 227 (44%) participated. Response rate was highest for municipal utilities.

15 Response Rate by Size Utilities of all sizes participated in the survey. Response rate was higher for larger utilities, but was significant even for small utilities.

16 Primary Respondents Over one-third of primary survey respondents are the manager of their utility (n = 215).

17 RESULTS: FOCUS ON PLANNING EFFORTS

18 Which Colour to Look At? Strengths Blue Glass half-full Opportunities to learn from/mentorship Best management practices Challenges Orange Glass half-empty Opportunities to improve Focused assistance

19 Financial Planning Over 62 percent of utilities set specific financial targets and goals. Most have the targets and goals approved by the governing body (n = 216).

20 Financial Self-Assessment The great majority of utilities monitor their finances against the budget at least monthly.

21 Asset Management Eighty-seven percent of utilities have or are currently developing an inventory of their key assets (such as pipes and pumps) (n = 215). Location is the most likely to be tracked, followed by asset age, operations and maintenance plan, and maintenance history.

22 Capital Planning The majority of utilities (53%) comfortably cover more than half of their planned capital improvements and unplanned/emergency capital improvements during the year. 51% of responding utilities have a fund designated for capital reserves (n = 195).

23 Capital Planning Most (81%) responding utilities have a list of potential future capital projects (n = 208). Most of these are published in official documents such as Capital Improvement Plans.

24 Disaster / Emergency / Resiliency Planning 72% of utilities have or are currently developing documentation of at least one type of system vulnerability. System vulnerabilities utilities have documented include natural disasters (62%), drought / water shortage (48%), and man-made disasters (29%).

25 Long Range Water and Wastewater Resources Planning Approximately half of all utilities engage in long-term supply or demand forecasting (n = 205). Demand and supply forecasts go out 10 to 20 years for half of all utilities.

26 Quantity (years) of Planning Utilities began 3 types of plans 15 to 20 years ago, while they began the 2 other types of plans in the past 5 to 10 years.

27 Frequency of Planning Utilities are most likely to update plans of all types every year.

28 Integration With Other Local Plans Utilities sometimes play a role in the broader (non-utility) planning efforts of the local governments served by the utility (n = 173).

29 Poll Anything that surprised you today?

30 Reviewing Rates Of utilities who reported a need to raise rates, 66% approved a rate increase greater than or equal to the amount recommended in the rates review (n = 152).

31 Current Revenues Nearly half of utilities anticipate generating enough revenue for some capital needs (n = 192).

32 Poll Would you like to sign up to receive EFC blog post content?

33 Q & A Carol Rosenfeld crosenfeld@sog.unc.edu Chris Nida cnida@nclm.org Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina School of Government, Knapp-Sanders Building CB #3330 Chapel Hill, NC USA

34 Next Webinar: Setting Financial Targets For Water Utilities Beyond the Budget A brief overview of setting financial targets (e.g. minimum reserve levels, specific debt service coverage ratios, etc.) and measuring utility s financial performance against those metrics. Speakers from North Carolina utilities with outstanding financial performance will discuss their utilities' targets, how they measure performance, and how they make decisions as a result of adopting this practice. Date: mid- September. Stay tuned for details at