Seattle Hopsinto the Future

摘要

Like many U.S. water and wastewater utilities, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is coping with aging infrastructure, more stringent regulations, and pressure to cut costs and use resources more efficiently. To deal with these challenges, SPU began a new asset management program in October 2002 — with help from friends across the Pacific. Asset management has been practiced in Australia for more than a decade, and the results achieved by the country's major urban utilities are impressive. Asset management has helped these utilities improve service reliability, lower life-cycle costs, reduce risk exposure, and improve overall service levels to customers. For example, major Australian water utilities have cut operating costs (per property) by more than 20% (see Figure 1, p. 52). Some have done even better. Hunter Water Corp. (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia), a water and wastewater utility serving nearly 500,000 people on the east coast of Australia, cut its operating costs by more than 40%. It also reduced capital expenditures by US$185 million (about 4 years of planned capital expenditures). These changes reduced real revenue per prop- erty by 34%, which meant lower total water and wastewater bills for customers.