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Water Utilities > About Water Utilities > 10 Attributes of Effective Utility Management

10 Attributes of Effective Utility Management

Developed in 2008 by water sector leaders, Effective Utility Management is the leading approach to water utility management in the U.S., centered around the 10 Attributes of an Effective Managed Utility.

EUM provides a comprehensive framework for assessing a utility, enabling it to set priorities tailored to the community's needs. It focuses on:

  • Protecting existing infrastructure investments.
  • Motivating and equipping the workforce to tackle daily challenges.
  • Shifting from reactive to proactive planning for the future.
  • Engaging employees in assessing and guiding the utility's direction.
  • Offering a simple, actionable, affordable and scalable solution for utilities of all sizes.

By fostering internal collaboration and community engagement, EUM helps manage service costs while ensuring reliable and sustainable water services.

Employee Development

Establishes a participatory, collaborative organization dedicated to continual learning and improvement. Ensures employee institutional knowledge is retained and improved upon over time.

Financial Viability

Understands the full life-cycle cost of the utility and establishes and maintains an effective balance between long-term debt, asset values, operations and maintenance expenditures, and operating revenues

Product Quality

Ensures purchased water from our supply partners is in full compliance with regulatory and reliability requirements and consistent with customer, public health and ecological needs.

Resiliency

Ensures utility leadership and staff work together to anticipate and avoid problems.

Customer Service

Provides reliable, responsive, and affordable services in line with explicit, customer-accepted service levels. Receives timely customer feedback to maintain responsiveness to customer needs and emergencies.

Operational Optimization

Ensures ongoing, timely, cost effective, reliable and sustainable performance improvements in all facets of its operations. Minimizes resource use, loss, and impacts from day-to-day operations.

Infrastructure Stability

Maintains and enhances the condition of all assets over the long-term at the lowest possible life-cycle cost and acceptable risk consistent with customer, community, and regulator-supported service levels, and consistent with anticipated growth and system reliability goals.

Community Sustainability

Manages operations, infrastructure, and investments to protect, restore and enhance the natural environment; efficiently uses water and energy resources; promotes economic vitality; and engenders overall community improvement.

Stakeholder Support

Engenders understanding and support from oversight bodies, the community for service levels, rate structures, operating budgets, capital improvement programs, and risk management decisions.

Water Adequacy

Ensures water availability is consistent with current and future customer needs through long-term resource supply and demand analysis, conservation, and public education.