Utility Management

Water utilities are complex businesses, and utility leaders must efficiently manage the people, processes, and technologies required to deliver water services. Successfully managing a utility requires a focus on customers and other stakeholders, operations, infrastructure, risk, sustainability, and more. WRF research on best practices provides a framework and guidelines for water utilities to follow.

Topic Overview (PDF)

In this topic

188 Projects 26 Web Tools 10 Case Studies 62 Webcasts

Practical Framework for Water Infrastructure Resilience

Research Investment

$694,236

Completion Year

2022

In Progress

Project Highlights

Secure and resilient water infrastructure is critical for citizens and the security of the nation. However, the best path to ensuring the security and resilience of this infrastructure is up for debate. There are numerous regulations and guidelines related to...

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Date Started

Sep 15, 2019

Principal Investigator

Will

Williams

Research Manager

Dr. Jian Zhang

Recent Updates

Project #5014

Practical Framework for Water Infrastructure ...

Reporting Period: December 16, 2019 - March 15, 2020. Case study framing questions and a template...

Project Update

04/17/2020

Project #4734

Real-Life Enterprise Resilience

Reporting Period: January 1, 2018 – March 31, 2018. The project scoping workshop was held during...

Project Update

01/08/2020

Project #4734

Real-Life Enterprise Resilience

Reporting Period: January 1, 2019 – June 31, 2019. During this period, the team conducted a...

Project Update

01/08/2020

Project #4666

Case Study Compilation on Applying Risk Management Principles and Innovative...

The goal of this research is to develop case studies on strategies and tools for applying...

Project Update

07/10/2019

Project #4998

Risk Benefit Assessment of Chlorite as a Co-Disinfectant for...

Project Update

12/09/2019

Project #4941

Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm Application Guidance for...

Project Objective

Experiences gained through Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) rival problem formulation will be captured to...

Project Update

09/13/2019

Project #4667

Long-Term Water Demand Forecasting Practices for Water Resources and...

The objectives of this project are to describe models, methods, and practices currently used to forecast...

Project Update

06/09/2019

News

Water Utility Infrastructure: Applying Risk Management Principles and Innovative Technologies to Effectively Manage Deteriorating Infrastructure

06/06/2019

The maintenance of infrastructure, especially buried infrastructure, accounts for a major part of a water utility’s capital. In 2013, the ASCE Report Card for America’s Infrastructure gave the drinking water...

Water Utility Finances: Best Practices for Setting Rates, Financing Capital Improvements and Achieving Stakeholder Support

06/06/2019

Water and wastewater utilities are having difficulties meeting their budgets while operating within their current financial framework. The concerns for many can be summarized as rising costs, uncertain revenues, and...

Advancing System-Level Resilience for Water Infrastructure

05/22/2020

While water infrastructure is deteriorating, water utilities are also faced with many challenges, including severe/extreme weather events, climate change, earthquake, flood/drought. America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) enacted in 2018 requires...

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Resources

Public Plus

Water Utility Customer Assistance Program Cost Estimation Tool

Web Tool

12/30/2013

Public Plus

Customer Assistance Programs for Multi-Family Residential and Other Hard-to-Reach Customers

Executive Summary

08/01/2017

Public Plus

Customer Assistance Programs for Multi-Family Residential and Other Hard-to-Reach Customers

Presentation

08/01/2017

View all Utility Management Resources

Related Projects

Recently

Project #2774

Utility Rate Structures: Investigating International Principles and Customer Views

Completed

Provides a compilation of global perspectives and ideas from other public utilities on establishing optimal rate structures, allocating costs, and communicating ideas that reflect investment needs in a...

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Project #184

Water Affordability Programs

Completed

Reports a comprehensive survey of affordability rates/programs now being offered by U.S. water utilities. Provides both case studies and an evaluation of the rates/programs against a set of...

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Project #4739

Funding Innovation: Turning an Idea into a Line Item

Completed

The benefits for innovation within water and wastewater utilities are well documented. Benefits include providing information to make sound decisions, improving operational efficiency, minimizing long term financial risk...

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Project #4965

Development of a Community-Based Lead Risk and Mitigation Model

In Progress

This project will further the science of lead (Pb) exposure risk assessment and mitigation, and translate this into practices that limit Pb exposure for drinking water consumers. A...

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Project #4703

Long Term Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Water Enterprise - Phase I

In Progress

Climate change and other changing conditions may jeopardize the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System's (RWS) ability to meet the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's (SFPUC) desired level of...

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Project #5055

Biosolids Research Summit

In Progress

There have been many new advances with biosolids beyond land application of Class A and/or B biosolids (e.g., energy from biosolids, high-quality or exceptional-quality biosolids, etc.). Despite the...

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