Strategic Asset Management involves meeting your customers’ desired level of service at the lowest life cycle cost. Asset management is a business process that helps a utility decide the best way to spend their limited dollars. The SW EFC offers resources, tools, trainings, and direct assistance to utilities in understanding and implementing asset management.

A water loss control program requires a wide range of activities to comprehensively identify and address real and apparent water losses (respectively, treated water that does not reach customers, and treated water for which the utility does not receive revenue for which it is entitled). We help utilities quantify real and apparent losses using the AWWA M36 Water Auditing and Loss Control Methodology and provide training and tools that assist in the development and implementation of policies and practices to control real and apparent water losses. We also work with utilities to understand the bigger picture of water loss control and to understand and establish goals for this program.

GIS resources help utilities with knowledge management and transfer, location of assets, development planning, application for funding, assessment of risk, and implementation of asset management. We offer a range of GIS technical assistance such as field data collection and map production, spatial and quantitative analysis as well as trainings and consultations focused on developing utility GIS capacity.

Utility partnerships range from simple agreements for sharing of equipment and services, to combined purchases, to full regionalization by interconnection of several systems. We provide assistance to small utilities in the advantages and techniques of forming partnerships, as well as larger projects involving regionalization.

A utility rate study analyzes the revenue generated and the expenses incurred in delivering service, including projections for future costs. It then calculates the rates needed to continue to meet those costs. The SW EFC assists utilities with rate studies and determining realistic rates that will allow the utility to achieve and maintain sustainability.

Energy management refers to the analysis of the energy requirements of a utility and the proactive use of techniques to minimize energy use while maintaining service levels required by the utility. The SW EFC provides assistance in assessing energy needs and can make recommendations for cost-effective ways to conserve energy.

The SW EFC has done extensive research on theories of affordability, as well as the results of applying different affordability criteria to utility rates. We can assist states in determining reasonable affordability criteria for utilities and provide training and assistance to utilities in determining an appropriate measure of affordability for their community.

Along with asset management, the SW EFC can assist utilities in other areas of management, such as developing policies and procedures, training boards, developing various plans, and assisting with budgets.

The SW EFC can assist water and wastewater utilities with developing Standard Operating Procedures for operations and maintenance, compliance with regulations, emergency preparedness, and numerous other types of processes essential to the efficient and sustainable operation of utilities.

The SW EFC has an extensive history of researching and analyzing environmental regulations and helping utilities understand the implications of these regulations on their operations. We provide numerous trainings and other types of assistance on compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act regulations.

Resiliency refers to the ability to recover quickly from difficulty and implies flexibility. In utility management, resiliency often goes hand-in-hand with redundancy. It can also result from a creative and flexible management style. The SW EFC offers trainings and assistance in techniques that increase the resiliency of utilities.

What is really meant by the often-used terminology, aging infrastructure, is “deteriorating assets.” The SW EFC can help utilities understand that deterioration, not age, is a better indicator of replacement. We can also help utilities analyze the situation using a variety of data sources and techniques to best spend limited replacement dollars.

Capacity Development means obtaining and improving the skills and knowledge to operate successfully over the long-term. Helping utilities with technical, financial and managerial capacity development has been at the core of the SW EFC’s mission since its inception, including assessing system capacity. We offer trainings and assistance with all aspects of this important concept.

Source water protection is a process by which local water utilities identify water sources, assess known and potential threats of contamination, notify the public, and take steps to reduce or eliminate the contamination threat. The SW EFC assists utilities and tribal authorities in making these assessments and advising ways to prevent and mitigate contamination.

Green infrastructure, which includes natural assets, is one way to help with source water protection and stormwater control. Green asset solutions are often overlooked in favor of gray solutions. The SW EFC is developing a framework for including green infrastructure in the traditional gray asset management to allow utilities to make more holistic decisions.

The SW EFC can assist utilities in a variety of ways in addressing their technical capacity needs. A few examples include: training operators, certifying tribal operators, helping to choose asset management software, developing GIS mapping or creating an operation and maintenance plan. The SW EFC has created tools and resources in this area.

One way that utilities can improve their assets is through outside funding. However, it can be hard to figure out what funding sources are available and what it takes to apply for and manage a grant or loan. The SW EFC provides training and assistance to help in this area. We also provide training in grants management.

The SW EFC conducts research into existing funding programs to determine whether there may be barriers to the use of the funds or ways in which the funds can better serve the needs of water and wastewater systems.