The Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority Board of Directors has decided to continue its three-year partnership with Veolia, for protection of water quality and environment.
The partnership, began in 2012 has so far achieved $5 million financial benefit, implementing operational efficiencies and establishing PWSA as pioneer in efforts for Green Infrastructure (GI).
Veolia provided interim executive management services to support PWSA’s goal of becoming Southwest Pennsylvania’s recognized expert on water quality, utility management and stakeholder responsiveness.
The extended contract to 2015 helps PWSA and Veolia to continue implementing a strategy to improve customer services, reduce spending, increase efficiency and overcome financial challenges.
Veolia has helped PWSA to comprehend $5.5 million in recurring revenue and efficiencies each year.
PWSA instituted financial controls limiting its spending and increasing accountability, fostered competition among companies and identified opportunities for operational efficiencies which can create a direct impact on the utility.
This partnership with Veolia has improved the day-to-day operations of the utility, resulting in significant cost efficiencies and improved customer service, said, Alex Thomson, board chairman, PWSA.
Veolia has provided stable leadership to PWSA helping to develop a plan to prepare the utility for the difficult challenges it faces in the future, he added.
To bring in the revenue, PWSA protected the return of a large commercial water customer and started a water meter replacement program to ensure that all customers are receiving and paying monthly bills.
In addition, with the support of Veolia PWSA has optimized its customer service platform, reducing hold times for customers up to 80 percent, enhanced the information provided to customers on monthly bills, and expanded bill-payment options.
Together, Veolia and PWSA have forged an excellent partnership, helping the Authority demonstrate leadership, innovation and superior customer service, said, William J. DiCroce, president, COO, Veolia North America’s Municipal & Commercial Business.
This partnership is part of Veolia’s Peer Performance Solutions (PPS) model, enabling municipal water utilities to standardize against other utilities while keeping up a public workforce and benefiting from private-sector expertise.
Improvements in performance levels have been created through in-depth diagnostics of operations, developing exact references for improvement, and supporting the employees in implementing creativities for achieving new performance metrics.
In future, Veolia will put on best practices through its management of more than 8,500 water and wastewater facilities and systems around the world and will transfer knowledge to PWSA employees.
In New York City, this program is expected to produce annual financial benefits of around $100 million by 2016 and so far, $90 million have been saved by NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection.
The highlights of this partnership will be $5.5 million annually revenue through operational efficiencies, founded financial controls to limit spending, raised competition among companies, secured the return of large, commercial water customer and started water meter replacement program.
In addition, other highlights include optimized the customer service platform, enhanced information to customers on monthly bills and expanded bill-payment options.
Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority provides water and sewer services to more than 300,000 consumers throughout the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
Sabeena Wahid
[email protected]