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Top asset
management firms in U.S., Australia sign strategic teaming agreement
Brown
and Caldwell News Release - 8/4/03
SAN
FRANCISCO – Nationwide environmental engineering and consulting
firm Brown and Caldwell and Australian utility Hunter Water have
signed an exclusive agreement to jointly pursue water- and wastewater-related
asset management projects throughout North America. Asset management
is a comprehensive approach to utility management that is focused
on improving customer service levels while reducing costs of asset
ownership.
Though
relatively new among North American public utilities, asset management
has been practiced in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia
over the past 20 years. With nearly a half-million customers in
New South Wales, Hunter Water has earned international recognition
for its innovative approaches to asset management implementation
and the results it has achieved.
Through
its Business Consulting Practice, San Francisco Bay Area-based
Brown and Caldwell was among the first U.S. firms to begin helping
utilities apply asset management principles to their business
operations. "This partnership raises the bar on what it means
to be a top-level asset management consultant," says Craig
Goehring, Brown and Caldwell CEO. "Our clients now have access
to unparalleled expertise in asset management through this alliance
which melds Brown and Caldwell’s comprehensive asset management
experience with Hunter Water’s implementation innovations."
"Since
adopting asset management in 1990, we have reduced customer rates
by 30 percent and per plant costs by 40 percent," says Kevin
Young, Hunter Water’s manager of Corporate Planning. "The
results are compelling. We have improved customer service and
system performance while at the same time reducing our capital
program by $220 million."
Independently,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a typical
U.S. utility can reduce overall costs by 20 percent through effective
asset management practices.
"To
work with utility managers who over 10 years have transformed
their agency using asset management and achieved the results they
have is truly exciting," says Goehring.
Urgency
among U.S. utilities to organize their operations around asset
management principles has been driven by federal, state and local
governments – and by utility ratepayers, who will likely
have to cover the estimated $23 billion-a-year funding gap between
infrastructure replacement needs and utility budgets. Over the
next twenty years, U.S. water and wastewater utilities face an
estimated $1 trillion in infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement
costs, primarily for pipelines, treatment plants, pumping stations,
and related appurtenances.
Asset
management offers these utilities a way to meet these costs while
continuing to provide affordable services to their customers.
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Established
in 1947, Brown and Caldwell is a multi-discipline, environmental
engineering and consulting firm that provides scientific, technical
and engineering design services to government and industry. The
employee-owned company, with headquarters in Walnut Creek, Calif.,
has more than 1,100 employees in 40 offices throughout the United
States. Engineering News-Record ranks Brown and Caldwell 54th
among the nation’s top 500 design firm, and 7th among firms
providing wastewater design. On the web at www.brownandcaldwell.com.
Hunter
Water Corporation provides water and wastewater utility services
to nearly one half-million people in the Lower Hunter region in
New South Wales, Australia. Established under Australia’s
State Owned Corporations Act in 1989, it provides a broad range
of technical and operational consulting services to water agencies,
councils, industry and urban developers through its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Hunter Water Australia Pty Limited. On the web at
www.hunterwater.com.au
and www.hwa.com.au.
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