This is the continuation of Ross and Heather's answer to a participant's question mentioned in "Levels of Service - How to Involve Customers and How Involved Should They Be?." Heather: and one last comment I want to make is the consulting process with the community can be a little overwhelming. So if you need to start at first without aligning some levels of service that you want to track, … [Read more...]
Levels of Service – How to Involve Customers and How Involved Should They Be?
A participant asked about levels of service, to wit: How involved should I have my customers be in determining my level of service and how do I go about involving them? Heather: Now I can tell you. I’ll give an answer and I’ll let Ross intervene because New Zealand has a lot of getting information from customers. In the US, we do not do a lot of that but there are utilities that would … [Read more...]
Monitoring and Analyzing Processes to Improve Asset Maintenance System
A participant asked, "Have you performed research related to automated condition-based monitoring? For example, vibration analysis and shock pulse method for bearing verification. This will be related primarily to pumping or any mechanical equipment. This will help perform predictive maintenance rather than reactive maintenance. If so, do you have the comparison of the brands and … [Read more...]
How to Deal with Water Losses Coming from Leaks in Homes
The question is about the water losses on the customer’s side. How can the agency: Inspect the individual plumping fixtures in private homes? Replace or repair the private leaking fixtures Finance the repairs or replacements Enforce the program Heather: That’s a really difficult issue. We do a lot of water loss training and working with utilities on doing water … [Read more...]
Are You Saving Enough for Replacement Cost of Assets?
The participant who asked about replacement cost of assets clarified that they are planning on setting aside 6 percent of the monthly estimated cost of the pump, which is not enough to buy the other pump after ten years. Heather: Yeah I think, it’s sort of, sometimes when we look at replacements, we’re just pushing the problem off to the future. Ross: You’re kicking the can on the … [Read more...]
Asset Replacement Cost – Interest Rates and Reserve Fund
Ross and Heather discussed asset replacement cost in the previous post in answer to a participant's question. This is the continuation of the conversation. Heather: And I think, you know you’re talking about the 6% increase that somebody suggested. And I think you could choose what interest rate you think seems to be the most appropriate… Ross: But if you’re good at that, change your … [Read more...]
Determining the Replacement Cost of Assets
A participant asked about the cost per year of an asset. He gave a simple example of a pump that costs $10,000 that should last ten years. So if you divide that by over the course of ten years and then by month, figures that to be $83 a month. If you set aside the depreciation for the asset. So the reason for the question is if someone else was looking at interest only and figured at 6 … [Read more...]
