Performance Measurement And Regulation Of Network Utilities

This book explores the important role that economic performance measurement is playing in the regulation of network utilities in many countries today. The contributors to the book - researchers from academia, regulatory agencies and consulting firms - address the use of efficiency measures in price regulation and in assessing the effects of past regulatory reforms. Industries examined include electricity supply, water supply, telecommunications and airlines, across a range of countries including the USA, UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

Annotation Options and guidelines for measuring the efficiency of recently privatized utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewerage, telecommunications, airports, ports, rail).

Benchmarking is essential for those developing and implementing water policy. If decision-makers do not know where they have been or where they are, it would seem to be impossible to set reasonable targets for future performance. Information on water/sewerage system (WSS) operations, investments, and outputs is essential for good management and oversight. This book is designed to help decision makers identify the data required for performance comparisons over time and across water utilities, to understand the strengths and limitations of alternative benchmarking methodologies, and to perform (or commission) benchmark studies. This book provides an overview of the strengths and limitations of different methodologies for making performance comparisons over time and across water utilities (metric benchmarking). In addition, it identifies ways to determine the robustness of performance rankings. Current benchmarking activities in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Central Europe/Asia, and OECD nations are summarized. Five basic approaches to benchmarking characterize current studies: Core indicators and a summary or overall performance Indicator (partial metric method), Performance scores based on production or cost estimates (“total” methods), Performance relative to a model company (engineering approach), Process benchmarking, and Customer survey benchmarking. This volume is of interest to the water professionals, water utility managers and senior staff of regulatory agencies, professionals in related government agencies, and consultants. Visit the IWA WaterWiki to read and share material related to this title: http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/InfrastructureRegulationStateOwnedEnterprisesVsInvestor-ownedInfrastructureOperators

Utilities Reform in 21st Century Australia: Providing the Essentials traces the development and consequences of the economic reform measures undertaken in the utilities sector in Australia (communications, energy, water/wastewater services, and transport) in the last years of the 20th century, and early decades of the 21st century. In doing so, it looks at the process of reform across industries, and across the state and federal jurisdictions, to identify what motivations the various governments had for pursing reform, how change varied across jurisdictions, and what issues arose in the process. Although by the mid-1990s all states and territories and the Australian Government were committed to reforming utilities as part of the National Competition Policy, not all pursued this reform with the same degree of speed and breadth of action. The broad trends of economic reform in Australia, and abroad, are also touched upon, to provide an outline of the wider context in which the reform of the utilities occurred. This book, therefore, explores the relationship between politics and society on the one hand and economic reform on the other; as well on as the efforts of governments in Australia to promote economic growth and the wealth of Australians in an increasingly complex and challenging global economic climate.

This three-volume handbook includes state-of-the-art surveys in different areas of neoclassical production economics. Volumes 1 and 2 cover theoretical and methodological issues only. Volume 3 includes surveys of empirical applications in different areas like manufacturing, agriculture, banking, energy and environment, and so forth.

This roundtable examines how regulators can best gather and interpret information used to evaluate transport costs.

Applying research from the ten years since the publication of 'The Measurement of Productive Efficiency,' this book guides readers from the basic models to the latest, cutting-edge extensions.

There is an estimated 1.4 billion km3 of water in the world but only approximately three percent (39 million km3) of it is available as fresh water. Moreover, most of this fresh water is found as ice in the arctic regions, deep groundwater or atmospheric water. Since water is the source of life and essential for all life on the planet, the use of this resource is a highly important issue. "Water management" is the general term used to describe all the activities that manage the optimum use of the world's water resources. However, only a few percent of the fresh water available can be subjected to water management. It is still an enormous amount, but what's unique about water is that unlike other resources, it is irreplaceable. This book provides a general overview of various topics within water management from all over the world. The topics range from politics, current models for water resource management of rivers and reservoirs to issues related to agriculture. Water quality problems, the development of water demand and water pricing are also addressed. The collection of contributions from outstanding scientists and experts provides detailed information about different topics and gives a general overview of the current issues in water management. The book covers a wide range of current issues, reflecting on current problems and demonstrating the complexity of water management.