Water Utilities: Structure, regulation, pricing and affordability

Description

This lecture covers the structure, regulation, pricing, and affordability of water utilities, focusing on the U.S. community water systems, industry economics, demand, regulatory framework, economic regulation, funding infrastructure, pressure on prices, household expenditures, water policies, stakeholder perspectives, ratemaking steps, cost allocation, rate design, utility rates evaluation, price signals, and affordability concerns with metrics, policies, and customer assistance programs.

Official source

https://mediaspace.epfl.ch/media/0_if9r2hv1

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Related lectures (33)

Related concepts (32)

Regulation

Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context.

Demand

In economics, demand is the quantity of a good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given time. The relationship between price and quantity demand is also called the demand curve. Demand for a specific item is a function of an item's perceived necessity, price, perceived quality, convenience, available alternatives, purchasers' disposable income and tastes, and many other options. Innumerable factors and circumstances affect a consumer's willingness or to buy a good.

Water distribution system

A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements. Water distribution network is the term for the portion of a water distribution system up to the service points of bulk water consumers or demand nodes where many consumers are lumped together.

Demand curve

In a demand schedule, a demand curve is a graph depicting the relationship between the price of a certain commodity (the y-axis) and the quantity of that commodity that is demanded at that price (the x-axis). Demand curves can be used either for the price-quantity relationship for an individual consumer (an individual demand curve), or for all consumers in a particular market (a market demand curve). It is generally assumed that demand curves slope down, as shown in the adjacent image.

Public water system

Public water system is a regulatory term used in the United States and Canada, referring to certain utilities and organizations providing drinking water. The US Safe Drinking Water Act and derivative legislation define "public water system" as an entity that provides "water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances to at least 15 service connections or serves an average of at least 25 people for at least 60 days a year." The term "public" in "public water system" refers to the people drinking the water, not to the ownership of the system.