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This paper analyzes the quantitative impact of the growing role of non-traditional financial actors, in particular institutional investors, in the financing structure and consumer pricing of regulated private utilities. The focus is on the water sector in England and Wales, where the effect of the firms' corporate financing strategies on key outcome variables may have been underestimated. The analysis is based on a staggered difference-in-differences estimation of the impacts of the evolution of the ownership of the assets, namely an increased participation of institutional investors, on leveraging and water pricing decisions. It shows a statistically significant positive impact on leverage levels and average consumer prices. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

"Fundamentals of Public Utilities Management provides practical information for constructing a roadmap for successful compliance with new and ever-changing regulatory frameworks, upgrading and maintenance, and general management of utilities operations. It describes current challenges faced by utility managers and offers best practices. In an effort to maximize the usefulness of the material for a broad audience, the text is written in a straightforward, user-friendly, conversational style for students and practicing professionals alike. Features : Presents numerous illustrative examples and case studies throughout, examines environmental compliance and how to best work with continually changing regulations, and frames the discussions in a context of energy conservation and ongoing sustainability efforts. Fundamentals of Public Utilities Management is designed to provide insight and valuable information to public utility sector managers and prospective managers in water operations (drinking water, wastewater, storm water), and to serves the needs of students, teachers, consulting engineers, and technical personnel in city, state, and federal public sectors"--

There is increasing recognition of the importance of dealing with material hardship rather than just income poverty. This paper deals with electricity disconnection and shows how Electricité de France (EDF), the French monopoly provider of electricity, has been testing a number of new policy instruments to avoid disconnection among its low income residential customers. EDF's approach is grounded in marketing principles and techniques both in terms of its willingness to respond to French public opinion on the need to reduce poverty and hardship, and in terms of its use of poor customers surveys to analyze the satisfaction of this segment of clientele to its energy assistance programs. EDF's programmes show how utilities, both public and private, can go beyond financial assistance as represented by the LIHEAP energy voucher programme in the USA.

Africa's urban population is growing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2015, the urban population increased by more than 80 percent from 206 million to 373 million people. Although access to piped water increased over the period (from 82 million urban dwellers with piped water in 2000 to 124 million in 2015), African utilities were not able to keep up with the rapid urbanization as reflected in the decline of piped water as a primary source of water supply in percentage terms. The objective of this assessment is to inform Bank and government policies and projects on the drivers of utility performance. The report describes the main outcomes and lessons learned from the assessment that identified and analyzed the main features of water utility performance in Africa. The report includes the following chapters: chapter one gives introduction, chapter two describes the methodology used in the study, including details on the data collection process. In chapter three, the study team undertook a trend analysis of utility performance of the sector. Chapter four examines the efficiency of utilities using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) while also using an absolute performance approach. Chapter five investigates the effect of institutional factors on utility performance. Chapter six presents an econometric analysis of the drivers of utility performance, using various definitions of utility performance. The results from the econometric models are triangulated with a set of case studies of five utilities (Burkina Faso's l'Office National de l'Eau et de l'Assainissement (ONEA), Cote d'Ivoire's la société de distribution d'eau de la Côte d'Ivoire (SODECI), Kenya's Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), Senegal's Sénégalaise des Eaux (SDE), and Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), similar to those that the electricity study team undertook, which are presented in chapter seven. The report concludes in chapter eight with the lessons learned from the assessment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the conditions and manner in which communal services are performed in Serbia. All public utility companies face significant issues such as unclear ownership, politicized management, insufficient funds for investment, and dominant market positions. These issues are cited as reasons why they are ineffective, chronically illiquid, insufficiently modernized, and unable to offer citizens satisfactory service quality.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on an analysis of current legislation, especially the Law on Communal Services and the Law on Public Enterprises, and on laws regulating the communal sector. Since this area is in transformation, proposals for new laws are discussed with strategies for restructuring public utility companies and with suggestions from experts on drafts of legislative solutions.FindingsThe article points out major issues related to inefficiency of public utility companies, and the reasons why citizens are provided with low‐quality services.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a dearth of literature, especially critical literature, on this topic in Serbia. This paper fills this gap partially.Practical implicationsThis paper has direct implications for improving performance of communal services in Serbia. Combining all other observations and suggestions, it should intrigue creators of new legislative solutions in this area.Originality/valueThis paper is based on a survey of existing legislation and legislation under review, representing a significant contribution to understanding the issues faced by the communal sector.

The earlier research on electricity supply to rural areas has tended to address the technical and financial performance of both grid connected and decentralised power systems and the socio-economic impact of electrification. However, this study has chosen to examine the impact of the developments and trends on the approach to rural electrification and its implications for developing countries in particular. The study includes a comprehensive historical analysis of rural electrification programmes implemented in both industrialised and developing countries. A general conclusion is that rural electricity supply has always been considerably more expensive than the supply to urban areas and, as a consequence, utilities have been reluctant to extend the service to rural areas. In most cases government subsidies were needed to make rural electrification programmes feasible. In many industrialised countries, and some developing countries, separate organisations were made responsible for the implementation of these programmes. These organisations have met with varying degrees of success in reaching customers. In particular small-scale private rural utilities have seldom proved to be successful. Evidence suggests that, from a development point of view, electrification should preferably be a component of an integrated rural development programme. The electrification of rural areas has traditionally been based on electricity supply from a central grid. However in the future, the electrification of rural areas in developing countries will be increasingly based on decentralised power facilities. In this respect it is also emphasised that small-scale independent power producers should be seen as fully fledged suppliers of electricity to the public grid. The all-round unsatisfactory performance of the electricity sector of several developing countries calls for urgent reforms. However the results of the historical analysis and recent experiences in industrialised countries with privatisation in the power sector suggest that developing countries should ask themselves the questions what is the minimum amount of power sector reform that is needed. The study reveals that political stability, autonomy, and an appropriate utility organisation which is based on an analysis of the business environment and contemporary management, are needed to successfully implement future rural electrification programmes.