Transcript Water Metering and Charges David Kelly.

Water Services Training
Group
15th Annual Conference
Water Services in Ireland –
Organisational modernisation
and new challenges
13th October 2011
Annual Conference October 2011
Water Metering and
Charges
David Kelly
Water Services Policy
Department of the Environment,
Community and Local Government
Annual Conference October 2011
Programme for Government
2011



To achieve a better quality water and
environment we will introduce a fair funding
model to deliver clean and reliable water
We will first establish a new State owned water
utility company to take over responsibility from
the separate local authorities for Ireland’s water
infrastructure and to drive new investment
The objective is to install water meters in every
household in Ireland and to move to a charging
system that is based on use above a free
allowance
Annual Conference October 2011
Agreement with EU/IMF

“The Government will prepare
proposals for implementation of the
recommendations of the independent
assessment of transfer of
responsibility for water services
provisions from local authorities to a
water utility in consultation with
European Commission Services with
a view to starting charging during
the EU/IMF Programme period”.
Annual Conference October 2011
Current Position



No Government Decision
Preparatory work being coordinated
by Department
Technical Working Group established
to advise on the metering
programme
Annual Conference October 2011
Technical Working Group





To advise on technical aspects of water
metering programme
To review available technologies and
equipment
To carry out market testing to prepare
costings for programme
To review the approach to installations
To advise on procurement
Annual Conference October 2011
Scope of Metering Programme




Households connected to public
water supplies
Group schemes and households with
private wells are not included in
programme!
Approximately 1.3m households are
connected to public water supplies
It is unlikely that all households will
be metered.
Annual Conference October 2011
Hard Cases




Apartments, flats and other multioccupancy buildings
Households with shared backyard
service connections
Difficult to locate stopcocks
Estimated that 1.05m households
will be metered in initial stages
Annual Conference October 2011
Survey of Households




Who are our customers?
What will be required to install a
meter?
National survey of households
proposed to collect data in
preparation for installation phase
Different categories of installation
can be quantified
Survey of Households




Pilot surveys carried out in Kerry,
Fingal and Wexford County Councils
Findings reviewed
Database and survey application
being developed
Guidance document prepared
Annual Conference October 2011
Installation Categories





Households with boundary box/meter
Households with serviceable
boundary box
Household with unserviceable
boundary box
Households with stopcock located
and identified
Households where stopcock cannot
be located
Annual Conference October 2011
Procurement
Procurement of equipment
Single national contract considered
preferred option.
•
Installations
Framework contracts managed locally
considered preferred option

Annual Conference October 2011
Charging Issues to be Addressed




Charge for unmetered households –
fixed or assessed?
Development of a customer database
for billing
Collection rates critical
Provision of the free allowance
Annual Conference October 2011
Other issues


Smart metering integration
Public awareness campaign
Annual Conference October 2011
Next Steps


Submission of proposals to
Government
Subject to Government approval Commencement of survey
Procurement of equipment
Installations
Annual Conference October 2011