Utility Benchmarking for Improvement
IWA PI Conference, Vienna, 17.05.2017
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Introduction
Bulgarian Water Association
Bulgarian Water Association / BWA / is a non-profit organization that
was established on December 1, 2005 in the city Sofia, Bulgaria
Its members are companies and individuals who have interests
related to water and sanitation, including the quality and treatment
of drinking, industrial, agricultural and domestic waste water;
management, protection and utilization of water resources
More than 200 individual and 96 corporative members
BWA is a member of IWA, EWA, EUREAU, IAWD
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Why benchmarking in Bulgaria and why facilitated by BWA?
Benchmarking:
 “Establishment of a benchmarking system will enable WSSC managers to identify
possible areas for improvement”– Strategy for Development and Management of
the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in the Republic of Bulgaria 2014 -2023
 Provides a clear picture of the performance of the utility (“dashboard”)
 Learns utility in detail how it perform against his peers (“performance gaps”)
 Enables utility to jointly find explanations and ways to improve the service
BWA:
 Great confidence in BWA and being independent fits one of the major successes
factors – guarantee that data will be used only for the purposes of improvements of
WSSCs
 BWA has a capacity to manage this process
 Close cooperation between BWA and IAWD who support benchmarking process in
Danube region
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History of the project (1/3)
DWP together with EBC and national utility associations develop
regional benchmarking hubs for utility improvement in:
Ex-Yu (Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia, Slovenia)
Kosovo & Albania
Bulgaria
Ukraine
•first pilot (2014): 36 utilities involved
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History of the project (2/3)
Beginning of 2014, BWA has been selected as a
beneficiary of the project "Process benchmarking in
water utilities in Bulgaria" within the competitive
grant scheme operated by the provisions of the
grant agreement TF012722
Contract between IAWD and BWA with the
support of the WB
The project duration is two years (data 2014 and
2015) with the idea to be implemented as a
permanent tool used by water operators
EBC methodology – standard level
12 water operators participate in 2014 and 16 in
2015
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History of the project (3/3)
In 2016 project was split and offered in two variants:
Internal benchmarking 2017,2018
International benchmarking
Methodology
More benefits for utilities in International benchmarking
Details
Number of Utilities
Methodology
Software
Financing
Benchmarking
Improvement phase
Internal Benchmarking
International Benchmarking
21
EBC standard level
MRDPW
only BG WSSCs
yes
12
EBC standard level
EBC web tool
Self-financing, WB, IAWD
Reginal HUBs+WE operators
yes
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Next steps
Continue in 2017 with both approaches: Internal and International
benchmarking and make efforts to convince as many as possible WSSCs
to upgrade from Internal to International benchmarking
Create acceptance that WSSCs to use benchmarking as a tool for
improvement
Improvement phase – start from May 2017, practical help to some
WSSCs for improvements in few processes (increase revenue or save
money with relatively simple and cheap improvements, e.g. collection
and commercial losses)
Preparation for next years – sustainability of the project
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How benchmarking helps in BG water sector? (1/2)
 Learned lessons
Large differences in the values of individual
PIs of the compared WSSC as this is typical for
all functional areas
Data quality - lack of proper registers and
data bases
Big potential for optimisation of key
Inefficiency of use of water resources (%)
70.0%
72.7%
67.7%
60.0%
63.0%
49.7%
40.0%
48.7%
40.8%
30.0%
35.0%
20.0%
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RWC 12
Plovdiv
RWC 7
RWC 6
Blagoevgr
Yambol
RWC 3
0.0%
Vidin
aimed at improving the work of each of them
22.5%
10.0%
RWC 1
Exchange of good practices between utilities,
53.2%
RWC 8
Find areas for improvement
61.1% 61.5%
59.6%
53.0%
50.0%
RWC 10
optimization
80.0%
Pazardzik
processes – higher costs hide reserve
How benchmarking helps in BG water sector? (2/2)
 Benchmarking and Regulator
 New rules in BP 2017-2021 (few of the important…)
Number of PI’s decreased from 79 to 29
Individual objectives for each water operator
Regulation method – price cap
New financial model for calculating the price
New content of the business plan (set by the regulator)
Very close link between PI’s, investments and final price
Regulatory limit for affordability of the price – 2.5%
Adjustment mechanisms (incentives and corrections)
Split of WSSC’s on 4 different group depending of their specifics
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Thank you for your attention!
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