INSIGHT
Strategic Planning:
Keys to Effectively Managing Your Utility

Terry Brueck President and CEO

In our current business and economic landscape, utilities need to be strategic. Today, utility managers face an onslaught of challenges. In addition to rising customer expectations, there are the demands of new technology and pressing issues surrounding our workforce, the environment, and increased government regulation. Effective management of these and other issues demands an approach that provides clear direction and considers the long-term well-being of your utility. Effective management requires a strategy.

Figure 1: The five “Keys to Management Success”

The Importance of Strategic Planning

Strategic business planning is an opportunity for utility managers to strengthen their organizations. Consider the significance of a strategic business plan. In the report “Effective Utility Management A Primer for Water and Wastewater Utilities,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and collaborating water sector associations* recognize strategic business planning as one of five “Keys to Management Success.” (Figure 1) In previous issues of Communicator (Issues 1 and 2, 2008 and Fall 2007) we discussed the keys of Leadership and Continual Improvement.

A study by the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF Project 2849) entitled “Strategic Planning and Organizational Development for Water Utilities” defines strategic planning as a continual process that responds to your ever-changing environment. The corresponding report and CD also provide a framework to help you develop a strategic plan that follows three steps: “Scan, Plan, and Do” (SPD).

The “Scan, Plan, Do” Framework

The SPD framework (Figure 2) serves as a guide in your strategic planning process. Within the SPD framework, there are several key elements that utilities must establish to support the success of your strategic plan:

• Mission, vision, and values statements that determine the organization’s priorities moving forward and can be adapted as needed.
• Leadership alignment that supports the strategic planning and implementation process.
• Involvement at every level of the organization.
• Communication that is clear and frequent throughout the utility.

Figure 2: The Scan, Plan, Do framework serves as a guide in building and implementing your strategic plan.

Step 1: Scan
In the Scan phase, your utility designs an approach toward the planning process, working with leadership to determine roles and responsibilities as you move forward. The Scan phase also involves collecting and analyzing data about your organization (internal elements) and your surrounding business landscape (external elements), which give you the information you need to build your plan.

Step 2: Plan
The emphasis within the Plan phase is on determining a strategic direction. Using the information collected earlier, you are equipped to develop well-defined strategies, assign specific plans to each of your strategies, and set measures that gauge performance.

Step 3: Do
The Do phase supports the implementation of the strategies you have established. In this phase you develop organizational goals and objectives, assign tasks, establish accountability, and create your timeframe for execution. Finally, you take action, implementing your plan, all the while monitoring progress and measuring your performance, and making adjustments as needed.

It Starts With a Plan

Effective management requires a strategic plan. There are tools available to help utilities through each phase of the SPD framework. EMA has helped many utilities define their strategies to achieve their long-term goals. The key is to start the process and remember that strategic planning is just that – a process that is fluid and continuous, always adjusting to the ever-changing demands and issues emerging within your utility.

* Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American Public Works Association, American Water Works Association, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, National Association of Water Companies, Water Environment Federation, and United States Environmental Protection Agency.

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FORESIGHT
Quick Wins You Can Realize During a CIS Implementation

Melanie Rettie Vice President

The implementation of a new CIS is a significant undertaking, but the efforts are not without their rewards. And there are short-term benefits or “quick wins” that can bring near-immediate improvements to a utility.

Quick wins at Saint Paul Regional Water Services (St. Paul) have significantly improved efficiencies. The utility relies heavily on its information technology. Serving more than 417,000 people, St. Paul provides retail water services to six cities and wholesale services to two municipalities. The utility also manages 96,000 commercial and residential accounts and provides billing services for sanitary sewer charges and other municipal fees to five of the cities to which it provides water.

Following its five-year strategic information technology plan, St. Paul began the process to replace its existing billing system. They selected EMA to help them prepare the organization for the new CIS.

Defining Process

Staff participation was critical to the project’s success. St. Paul began its plan development by establishing clear roles and responsibilities for both staff and stakeholders. The project was organized into three major groups:

• Steering Committee (executive guidance)
• Core Team Members (project coordination)
• Subject Matter Experts (additional perspective)

Information Services (IS) also participated, attending workshops and interviews and providing input on technology and analysis on interface and integration matters.

Determining Project Goals

Building on the utility’s balanced scorecard approach, the Steering Team established overall project goals. Core Team Members then refined the goals and developed over 90 associated measures. Determining project goals created a unified approach and brought clarity of purpose to the project. The final goals were:

• Improve services to customers.
• Maintain efficiencies of current system.
• Create efficiencies with improved work processes.
• Acquire appropriate and user-friendly technology.
• Use successful project management practices.

Quick Wins; Tangible Results

With a vendor for the new CIS now selected, St. Paul has started the implementation phase of its project. The utility acknowledges they have already realized many early benefits because of the process they have gone through, including:

• Clear, unified direction for the new CIS between Customer Service, management, and IS.
• An interim hardware solution for the current billing system, which bought the utility additional time, reduced costs, and added disaster recovery capabilities.
• Best practices-based tools and templates that provided a head start in preparing for the new CIS and reduced risks going forward.
• Solutions to specific business needs, resulting in increased efficiencies (i.e., automated turn-on charges, the ability to send high consumption alerts; capacity to support more billing history and notes, and automated plumbing permit processing that is integrated with the City’s permitting application).
• Staff preparation for the new technologies; new leaders developing and emerging.
• Redesign of certain processes for the new CIS, which will provide a 30% to 40% efficiency improvement in service orders, payment arrangements, adjustments, and final bills.
• Greater understanding across the organization’s working groups of the “meter to cash” process.

Added Benefits

There have been expanded benefits as well. Staff members are very engaged with their work, and an alignment has formed amongst colleagues, resulting in:

• Improved customer options.
• More efficient work practices.
• Greater consistency between long-term technology and integration goals.
• Development of a stronger business process improvement mindset.
• A much better position to successfully implement a new CIS.
  
  

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As budgets continue to shrink and demand for every dollar increases, municipalities and utilities are aggressively seeking ways to reduce costs while continuing to provide quality services. Improved efficiency tops the list. In the spirit of continuous improvement, many organizations are working hard to find better ways to manage their performance.

Performance dashboards present performance metrics in a user-friendly format. This is a dashboard from a wastewater facility.

Recognizing the need for improved performance management, representatives from 11 state and local public interest associations* have formed the National Performance Management Advisory Commission. The Commission is a collaborative working group focused on creating a national principles-based framework for public sector organizations to use to strengthen their performance management practices.

Also on the Commission is renowned performance management authority David N. Ammons. EMA spoke with Dr. Ammons about the Commission and performance management.

Why has performance management become a greater priority in recent years?

Getting the most from the investment we’re making in the public sector has always been important, but we’ve focused more on that over the past several years because we feel the imperative of getting the best return possible on our investment of tax dollars and service fees.

How will the framework that the Commission creates help organizations with performance management?

Our hope is to be able to provide advice to governments that want to advance from simply reporting measures to making data-driven, or at least data-influenced decisions. If a jurisdiction is saying, “We collect measures, but they’re not that influential in our decision processes,” we’re hoping we can provide advice to help them step beyond simply reporting to actually using the data.

What common misconceptions do organizations have about performance measurement?

One common misconception is if we measure performance and report it, then magically, performance will improve. Sometimes it happens that way, but not always. More often, real improvement requires that someone – often a manager or supervisor – recognize the problems or opportunities revealed in the measures and then take deliberate steps to bring about improvement.

Can you explain the difference between performance measurement and performance management?

You might think of one as relatively passive and the other as more active, even aggressive. Consider, for instance, a water authority that measures line loss in the water system. It regularly reports the line loss figure, perhaps as one grand average for the entire system. The authority is being accountable in that it is letting people know it has a line loss of, say, 15 percent. The authority’s effort at accountability is commendable, but this is a rather passive act if it does nothing else.

Now consider another authority in a different jurisdiction that measures line loss, tracks it, isolates where the problem is, fixes it, and shows how they’re improving or reducing the line loss. That’s performance management.

Some organizations already have systems in place that provide lots of data. What will help them better understand how to use their information?

Having lots of data is not as important as having the right data. Too many governments continue to rely overwhelmingly on workload measures, or outputs. They’ve built their measurement system around measures that are easy to collect – tons of asphalt laid or gallons of water treated – that they hope will impress the governing body and citizens with how much they are doing. For these organizations, performance measurement is viewed as something that must be done for transparency. But raw output measures do not really say anything about the quality of their work.

If we’re serious about managing performance, just knowing the quantity doesn’t inspire us to think of ways to get better. If we want data to give us feedback on how we’re doing, we can’t settle for just the raw counts. We need measures of efficiency and effectiveness. We need to know how quickly we respond to water main breaks and how many sewer backups we have per linear mile. And we need to isolate and fix them. Tracking efficiency and effectiveness data is more likely to keep us on our toes and may cause us to see patterns that warrant special strategies to resolve a problem – perhaps influencing our next capital improvement plan.

We also need to be asking if we’re getting as much for our investment today as we did last year and if we’re getting as much for our investment as are other communities. If others are getting “more bang for the buck,” we need to figure out how they’re doing it so we can import some of their ideas into our system to improve our operations.

Using data to help us target our efforts and improve our strategies – that’s a far cry from just tracking raw numbers and saying “we do a lot of stuff.”

What’s required of those committed to improvement through performance management?

The Commission is debating what performance management means both from a system standpoint and from an individual practice standpoint. Some Commission members associate performance management with the establishment of an overarching performance management system. Clearly, having such a system that gives managers the kind of information and structure that enhances performance management is pretty ideal.

But I think we need to recognize and encourage performance management actions by individual managers even absent an overarching system. There are plenty of examples of individual managers analyzing performance data and making important program decisions based upon the data even without a formal system in place. I think the Commission will want to encourage acts of performance management as well as formal systems.

What are the first steps for those organizations looking more closely at performance management?

Assuming they have performance measures in place, the first step would be to assess how good those measures are for performance management. This isn’t a matter of challenging the measures in terms of accuracy, but in terms of whether the measures provide information that has real managerial value. Does a given measure address an important aspect of performance – something that a manager would want to monitor regularly? If not, then the first step is to ask: What are we really trying to accomplish? What are the important aspects of this service? How would we know good performance from mediocre performance? What would it take to know that? Once we answer those questions, we design a set of measures that either confirms we’re getting the level of performance we think we should or alerts us to the fact that we’re not.

Do you have examples of how data-driven decision making has made a difference?

A city official told me about data-driven decisions being made in his municipality where they’ve interfaced data from their 311 and GIS systems and are plotting maps of where the calls for service are for both water and sewer. Not only is this telling them where to focus their maintenance efforts, but it’s also guiding their thought processes on capital improvement programs. By mapping different types of problems, such as sewer line blockages, it is even guiding their citizen education efforts where they’re trying to alert citizens to the problems of pouring grease down their drains. It’s helping them spot problem areas, pinpointing the audiences they need to reach with those kinds of messages. It’s a wonderful example of data-driven decision making.

The Commission talks about providing guidelines, but I hope we also come up with some really good examples, because these may turn on the light for some folks.

David N. Ammons, Ph.D. David N. Ammons, Ph.D., is the Albert Coates Professor of Public Administration and Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served in various administrative capacities with the municipalities of Fort Worth, Texas; Hurst, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Dr. Ammons also has taught in the public administration programs of the University of North Carolina, the University of Georgia, and the University of North Texas. Among his books on public sector management are Leading Performance Management in Local Government (ICMA, 2008), Municipal Benchmarks: Assessing Local Performance and Establishing Community Standards (Sage Publications, 2001) and Tools for Decision Making: A Practical Guide for Local Government (CQ Press, 2009). Dr. Ammons consults with local governments on organizational and management concerns, including performance measurement and productivity improvement. He is a member of the National Performance Management Advisory Commission.

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Clockwise from upper left: A view of ASA’s 119-foot biosolids building; Joel Gregory, Team Lead, seated at a SCADA terminal; ASA’s dewatering equipment, located on the top floor of its biosolids building; Alexandria City Hall; Welcome sign at the entry to the ASA plant; A rooftop view of the facility’s BNR system; and effluent ready for final testing before leaving the facility for the Potomac.

In 1999, the Alexandria Sanitation Authority (ASA) of Alexandria, Va., embarked on a plant upgrade of more than $350 million to meet new water quality regulatory standards. Situated on the Potomac River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, the facility needed to comply with requirements of both the Potomac Embayment Standards and the Chesapeake Bay Agreement. The project was extensive and would take six years to complete, changing the plant from a manual, physical-chemical facility to a fully automated biological treatment plant. The facility would continue to operate “business-as-usual” during the years of significant construction.

Upgrades were state-of-the-art. In addition to a complex Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) system, ASA installed UV disinfection, additional digesters, and a pre-pasteurization unit as well as a sophisticated odor control system that accommodates the entire plant and a cutting-edge solids processing building that produces Class A biosolids. Everything is driven by a new SCADA system.

The new technology transformed the facility. It also brought changes to ASA’s workforce that were no less significant.

Karen Pallansch Director of ASA

“We knew we had to change the organization,” said Karen Pallansch, Director of ASA. “We were going from a totally physical-chemical plant and had to help our people learn very new things. It was no longer about using our hands or our bodies anymore. It was more about using our heads. Essentially, we were doing an organizational change at the same time that we were undertaking this massive construction project.”

Reorganizing the Workforce

Partnering with EMA, ASA set out to determine the best way to proceed with its impending workforce changes. The first step was an assessment that looked at the facility’s organizational structure, its workforce and current practices – all in the context of the new technology that would be installed during the plant upgrade. The assessment findings led to significant changes.

First, ASA restructured into teams. Two divisions were created and named to reflect the organization’s commitment to the environment: Clean Rivers (water) and Green Fields (solids). A director oversees each division. Each division has two team leaders, who manage staff. A Central Maintenance team provides general support to both divisions.

Development of a multi-skilled worker program provided ASA with additional flexibility and a skilled workforce to fill in as needed throughout the plant. This program, referred to as the Process Technician (PT) program, began as a voluntary endeavor into which employees applied for entry. Today, all entry-level workers who join ASA participate in the program, serving six-month shifts in different areas within the Clean Rivers and Green Fields divisions. Through the program, employees receive on-the-job training and consequently demonstrate competency in the different levels (or blocks) of skills. Pay increases according to performance and level of demonstrated skill. Graduates of the PT program can remain a process technician or consider specialist positions within the facility as they open.

Joel Gregory Team Lead

“Our process technicians are highly skilled,” said Joel Gregory, a Team Lead at ASA. “That speaks to the depth of our people. Our PT program is actually our biggest commitment to training.”

Achieving More with Less

Paul Carbary Director, Green Fields

With a fully automated plant under construction, ASA recognized the new technology would require fewer workers.

“The amount of equipment on-site had nearly tripled,” said Paul Carbary, Director of the Green Fields division. “At the same time, we were transitioning from an operator-intensive way of doing things. We didn’t need as many people, but we did need highly skilled workers who could take care of our new equipment.”

Figure 1: ASA continues to improve on its productivity and efficiency, operating at a higher daily flow with less staff.

Upon completion of theupgrade, the number of employees per shift decreased dramatically from a high of about 22 in the late 1990s to the present total of four plus a team lead. Early on, leadership determined that any staff reductions would occur over time through attrition. Now, at a lean 128 employees, ASA treats 54 MGD and maintains a sterling compliance record – a historic accomplishment that illustrates the facility’s efficiency and effectiveness. (Figure 1)

A Commitment to Training

Reorganizing gave ASA the flexibility to better meet the demands of its new technology, but it was only half of the equation. Training was just as critical.

Initial training dollars allocated per employee were very low. “We were at about 185 field staff and only had a $4,000 budget for training,” Pallansch said. “So we made a huge commitment to go best in class in terms of funding for training and slowly moved from 2% to 3% and then to 4% of our O&M budget.”

Prior to increasing budget allocations for training, ASA adopted a strategic approach, utilizing vendor training extensively during the plant upgrades.

“We wrote our contracts in a special way and had a staff member monitor all the training that contractors and vendors were supposed to provide,” Pallansch explained. “We had them submit lesson plans. We also made them use certified trainers. We made sure that our vendor training was complete.”

Figure 2: ASA’s increased investment in training employees

Vendor training, sometimes one-on-one, covered everything from taking samples to running the BNR process. Developers of the facility’s SCADA system met with ASA operators and walked them through every screen, ensuring they understood everything.

As ASA increased its training budget, the facility went from about $82 per employee per year to a high of more than $3,000 as the upgrade neared completion. (Figure 2) The facility offered training in many different forms to accommodate different levels of learning as well as different types of learners.

“For many ASA workers, this was their first exposure to a computer, not to mention handling a mouse,” Pallansch said. In some instances, employees were even encouraged to play games online to help improve their navigation skills.

In addition to extensive on-site classroom training, ASA employees continue to benefit from on-the-job learning through mentoring and the PT program. Online training also allows employees to learn at their own pace and demonstrate their newly acquired competencies through testing. Additional opportunities exist through off-site training at area colleges and universities as well as coursework and seminars offered by the many industry associations.

ASA employs an on-site training coordinator to help employees consider their training options and take advantage of the many training opportunitiues available to them in their professional and personal development.

“Bottom line, we try to have fun and create learning sessions that are not just about sitting there, but engaging your whole body,” Pallansch said. “There are three methods of learning – seeing, hearing, touching – we get our staff involved in all three.”

Employees also have opportunities to improve their soft skills, or the human aspect of the professional development, to help reinforce the team concept and improve communication.

Myers-Briggs testing gave ASA employees a better understanding of their own personalities and preferences and a greater appreciation of how their co-workers process information. “It helps to understand that people think differently,” said Richard “Rick” James, Planner/Scheduler for ASA’s BNR/UV Team. “It’s not right or wrong, it’s just how we think. The test helped us better understand how to work together.”

Team-building among leadership also was strongly emphasized. Educational meetings as well as off-site team-building exercises helped develop specific interpersonal skills. One example: participation in a ropes exercise, which required ASA colleagues to rely on each other as a team. Other courses on topics such as behavior, listening, and perception also have helped leadership strengthen their skills to become better, more effective leaders.

Establishing Effective Leadership

The ASA leadership team worked with EMA early in the upgrade process to define how they could help guide employees through the many changes both to the plant and within their jobs. A six-step alignment process was developed to help leadership navigate through the change. (Figure 3)

Figure 3: Six Step Alignment Process

Step One mobilized the leadership team.

Step Two directed leadership team members to learn about each other.

Step Three created alignment around key items that really matter for ASA’s success.

Step Four developed a communications plan to keep employees aware of ASA’s vision and values.

Step Five developed methods to involve employees without compromising operation of the existing plant, construction, or the new process.

Step Six implemented a methodology to ensure continuous feedback.

Under Pallansch’s direction, ASA also experienced a change in its leadership model. The traditional “top-down” model was replaced with a more collaborative model that emphasized open communication.

“Now we have a team-based approach, and we listen to the recommendations that come up,” Pallansch said. “We try to practice facilitation so that the teams understand the vision and culture of who we are and why we go certain ways. There’s just a lot more involvement of everybody to help us make decisions.”

The new approach has had a significant impact on employees and improved morale. “During the upgrade, whenever a decision had to be made, it was done together with input from every level,” said Rick James. “The stripes were off at the door. And when they asked me for my opinion, I knew they meant it.”

Keys to Success

There are several other elements that have led to ASA’s successful plant reorgaization. Open communication was a significant factor. Company-wide monthly meetings updated everyone on the latest developments and reinforced that everyone was “in this together.” Daily team lead meetings continue to help establish continuity. Bulletin boards throughout the organization, post important news and information to keep everyone informed and engaged.

James Atkinson Shift Leader of Operations

Clearer communication also has led to improved planning, explained James Atkinson, Shift Leader of Operations. “We’ve become more proactive and less reactive,” he said. “Whether it’s a storm or something else that is coming up, we meet and talk about it ahead of time. It’s good planning.”

Persistence also has been necessary to carry forward new ideas and practices, giving them time to become part of the culture and be embraced throughout the facility. Additionally, flexibility has been key – trying new methods of training and communication and changing up when necessary to best meet the needs of the workforce.

Recruiting and Retaining

While turnover has not been an issue for ASA, according to Ralph Charlton, Director of Employee, Customer and Physical Services, he explained that many of the facility’s employees are approaching their third decade of service, which is a concern.

”The biggest issue facing us is our aging workforce,” Charlton said. Estimating the average age of the ASA employee to be 47, he said that retirements are imminent, and it is an issue the facility does not take lightly.

“We’re in a highly competitive market,” he explained. “We must offer excellent salaries and benefits.” Charlton added that ASA’s one-team, community feel, and best-in-class standard will be strong recruiting advantages.

Best in Class

“Best in class.” It is a phrase used frequently by ASA employees, most of whom see their roles at ASA as stewards of the environment. The sense of ownership and pride found among ASA employees is evidenced by an immaculate plant and a long list of awards that recognizes their high standards of excellence.

“Best in class” is the gold standard that Pallansch sets before every ASA employee. “We’re very small and have very different drivers than other facilities around us,” she said. “As with any organization, you have to understand who you are and what your culture is. Then you have to figure out given your culture, what is it you’re going to focus on that makes you the best? For us, it’s our team-based approach to doing our work and getting a lot of involvement and input from our people.”

ASA Profiles of Success Cindy Rexrode, Process Technician Cindy Rexrode began her career with the Authority 16 years ago in Building & Grounds. During the plant upgrade, Rexrode recognized that the new technology would require new skills. In 2003, Rexrode applied for and was admitted to the Process Technician (multi-skilled worker) program. The cross-training has expanded her skill set and given her the opportunity to work in various capacities both on the maintenance and operations side of the wastewater treatment process. Through continued training and mentoring, her skill set continues to grow. Among her most significant achievements, Cindy recently received her Wastewater License levels 1, 2, and 3. “I’m very proud of this,” Rexrode said. “It took a lot of perseverance and now, I have options. This has made me realize that I can do just about anything.”   Rick James, Planner/Scheduler, BNR/UV Team A 19-year veteran of the facility, Rick James joined ASA as a maintenance mechanic. Years later, he participated in the organization’s PT (multi-skilled worker) program. Today, as a Scheduler/Planner, James oversees the planned and corrective maintenance activities at ASA. According to James, the changes at ASA have been significant and very positive. He added that overall, ASA staff is a lot more knowledgeable. During the upgrade and reorganization, James was part of the transition team, “a ground floor opportunity,” he said, that allowed him to participate in the development of the facility’s future. He also helped create SOPs during the start-up process. “Some people may look at this as just a job,” James said. “I take pride in what I do and in the plant. If you want to be world-class, you have to act world class.”

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Larry Jentgen Vice President

Everyone is looking for ways to save money and maximize budgets. Water and wastewater utility managers are no different. You’re looking to trim costs and effectively use your technology to increase bottom-line savings. One prime opportunity: more efficient use of energy resources.

Shifting Energy Loads During Peak Demand Periods

Your utility may represent one of your energy supplier’s largest customer loads. Your energy supplier may be looking for ways to shift energy load to lower demand periods or to interrupt power delivery for short periods. At the same time, you need to reduce energy costs at your utility. Is there a solution that meets both your needs and those of your energy supplier? Yes.

Many water/wastewater utilities are working together with their energy suppliers to lessen their transmission, generation, and distribution problems associated with electric system loads. Water/wastewater utilities are then rewarded with reduced energy costs.

Effective energy management considers supply and demand components.

It takes an energy provider who understands water/wastewater load requirements to help you create a practical rate structure, or a water/wastewater staff member who understands local energy issues to work with your supplier. One example of a solution: reduction of Generation Operating Reserve (GOR), which provides significant cost savings to the electric utility by using interruptible load to address system reliability requirements. Time-of-use or real-time rates provide incentives for your utility to shift energy consumption to lower cost periods that benefit you and your energy supplier.

What’s the common element of success in this process? It’s people – human initiative, communications, and the desire to seek a mutually beneficial solution for the energy provider as well as your utility.

Managing Your Energy Savings

Through operations management you can leverage time-based or interruptible rates on the demand side of the meter. You can implement an operating plan to shift or interrupt the load on a real-time basis, using your Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and knowledgeable System Operators. An Operations Planner and Scheduler (OPS) is key to developing operating plans. Plans are based on forecasted consumption for the water utility or rainfall/snow melt for the drainage/wastewater utility. Your plan should also consider water supply, water quality, and the current operating state of your utility system, including maintenance and construction.

The OPS and System Operators work together to create operating plans that maximize the potential of your rate schedule incentives. Energy management benchmarks and SCADA/billing reports allow you to measure success and make necessary changes to daily operating plans.

Systems Thinking is Holistic Thinking

Understanding system operations is important on both sides of the meter. How do individual facility operations affect system hydraulic interaction? What is the effect on water supply and quality? Understanding how the entire system works together is critically important when determining energy management strategies – from rate negotiation to daily operations. Operating your utility system with a high degree of rigor will help realize energy savings, maintain high reliability, and provide quality utility services.

Technology solutions can increase your potential savings. Simple tools such as SCADA, spreadsheets, and web-based reports can contribute significantly. As your operations staff’s confidence grows, more complex optimization and system simulation tools can be introduced, once a payback is identified. Still, the quickest and most significant energy savings typically come from the innovation and ingenuity of your own people.

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