AWWA ACE65423

Many complexities that have plagued water utilities as they attempt to rationally determine the efficacy of water conservation programs. These difficulties fall into three categories: conceptual - what do we mean by benefits and costs of conservation programs, and how do those benefits and costs differ when viewed from different perspectives; informational - from where is a water utility to obtain valid and reliable information to estimate the benefit and cost components; and, analytical - how should the benefit and cost information be properly compared to make the correct decisions? What analytical tools can facilitate these comparisons? This paper provides an overview of a recent American Water Works Association Research Foundation sponsored study designed to address all three of these difficulties in a way that enables water utilities of different sizes and differing levels of sophistication to better integrate their supply-side and demand-side planning. Practical tools produced by this research include: a Water Utility Direct Avoided Cost Estimation Model - by analyzing the direct costs that utilities can avoid via demand reduction, water utilities define the benefits produced by WUE programs - influenced by system simulation models, this path-breaking work distinguishes between short-run and long-run costs and permits utilities to consider seasonal differences in avoided costs - this model is intended to inform the design of more valuable WUE programs; a Benefit-Cost WUE Planning Model - this is a spreadsheet-planning tool that quickly calculates water savings, costs, economic benefits, benefit-cost comparisons, and bill impacts for individual conservation programs - the current version of the model also computes cumulative results for up to 10 programs; and, a Cost and Savings Compendium - this research also produced a compendium of North American field studies of the costs and savings generated by WUE measures and practices. This is a compilation of past and ongoing empirical research. Strengths and weakness of the research are noted and summaries are provided where appropriate. Includes figures.