Fundamentals of Public Utilities Management

Frank R. Spellman

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367544393
• eBook ISBN: 9781000177541
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Technology & Engineering

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:

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• Presents numerous illustrative examples and case studies throughout

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• Examines environmental compliance and how to best work with continually changing regulations

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• 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 serve the needs of students, teachers, consulting engineers, and technical personnel in city, state, and federal public sectors.

1 What Is Public Utility Management?

The most important arrow in any manager’s quiver can be summed up in one word:

Credibility, Credibility, Credibility.

A leader [or manager] is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

Introduction

Public utility management, also known as public works management, oversees the operations, maintenance, safeguarding, and preservation of the systems responsible for water treatment, wastewater collection and treatment, and distribution of safe potable water to a localized community. Keep in mind, however, that public utilities also can include energy, telecommunications, and other local services; in spite of this, in this book our focus is water service. With regard to actual hands on or eye on operations, the public utilities manager supervises the staff, interacts (networks) with the public (ratepayers and stakeholders), is the principal guardian of ratepayers and other contributors’ funds, keeps an eye on plant and employee safety and health, stays in good standing with regulators—meets with liaisons from environmental and health agencies and with other government entities to discuss various issues affecting public utilities management—and coordinates with other municipal officials to ensure the efficient and professional function of facilities and the timely and reliable distribution of resources. The general and daily tasks a utility manager performs on a routine basis are shown in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 Routine tasks performed by utility managers.

With regard to the public utility manager’s constant and never-ending focus beyond routine tasks, his or her center of attention is usually directed mainly in five areas. These main areas of primary focus, as shown in Figure 1.2, consist of staff, ratepayers, regulators, plant security, and the organization’s governing body.

FIGURE 1.2 Public utility managers’ main areas of focus.

Key Terms and Definitions

To study any aspect of wastewater and drinking water treatment management operations, you must master the language associated with the technology. Each technology has its own terms with its own accompanying definitions. Many of the terms used in water/wastewater treatment are unique; others combine words from many different technologies and professions. One thing is certain: water/wastewater managers without a clear understanding of the terms related to their profession are ill-equipped to perform their duties in the manner required. Although this text includes a glossary of terms at the end of the work, we list and define many of the terms used right up front, the ones relative to each chapter. Experience has shown that an early introduction to keywords is a benefit to readers. An up-front introduction to key terms facilitates a more orderly, logical, systematic learning activity. Those terms not defined in this section are defined as they appear in the text.

Key Terms Used in This Chapter

The following terms are presented in this chapter or are introduced here for a better understanding of the chapter’s contents. These definitions provide a brief overview of their meaning (USEPA, 2008).

• Attribute: A characteristic or outcome of a utility that indicates effective performance.
• Benchmarking: Often used as a measurement tool in comparing similar operations and processes by measuring across organizations and/or sectors to identify best practices, set improvement targets, and simply to measure progress.
• Effective utility management: Management that improves products and services, increases community support, and ensures a strong and viable utility into the future.
• Gap analysis: Defining the present state of an enterprise’s operations, the desired or “target” state, and the gap between them.
• Internal trend analysis: Comparison of outcomes or outputs relative to goals, objectives, baselines, targets, and standards.
• Life-cycle cost: The total of all internal and external costs associated with a product, process, or activity throughout its entire life cycle—from raw materials acquisition to manufacture/construction/installation, operation and maintenance, recycling, and final disposal.
• Performance measurement: Evaluation of current status and trends; it can also include a comparison of outcomes or outputs relative to goals, objectives, baselines, targets, standards, other organizations’ performance or processes (typically called benchmarking), etc.
• Operations and maintenance expenditure: Expenses used for day-to-day operation and maintenance of a facility.
• Operating revenue: Revenue realized from the day-to-day operations of a utility.
• Performance measure: A particular value or characteristic designated to measure input, output, outcome, efficiency, or effectiveness.
• Standard operating procedure: A prescribed procedure to be followed routinely; a set of instructions having the force of a directive, covering those features of operations that lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness.
• Strategic plan: An organization’s process of defining its goals and strategy for achieving those goals. Often entails identifying an organization’s vision, goals, objectives, and targets over a multi-year period of time, as well as setting priorities and making decisions on allocating resources, including capital and people, to pursue the identified strategy.
• Stewardship: The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to a designated person or entity’s care; the responsibility to properly utilize its resources, including its people, property, and financial and natural assets.
• Sustainability: The use of natural, community, and utility resources in a manner that satisfies current needs without compromising future needs or options.
• Watershed health: The ability of ecosystems to provide the functions needed by plants, wildlife, and humans, including the quality and quantity of land and aquatic resources.

Public Utilities Manager Qualifications

What are the qualifications to be a public works manager? A better question is what are the qualifications needed to be an effective public works manager? Well, if you attend college to obtain a degree in management with the intention of finding a management job in the public utility or public works field you will be exposed to a wide assortment of management theories, concepts, models, systems, ideas, and philosophies. So, the question becomes which of all of these concepts is the right one for becoming enlightened and qualified on how to manage a public utility?

Good question. The truth is you will probably be exposed to a wide range of administrative theories including traditional standard bearer: Fayol’s well-known Five Functions of Management. The Five Functions of Management are:

1. 1. Planning
2. 2. Organizing
3. 3. Commanding
4. 4. Coordinating
5. 5. Controlling

Although Fayol’s Five Functions of Management have been around since 1916 and many more current concepts and theories of management have been developed and employed since, Fayol’s Five Functions of Management are still relevant to organizations today. In a nutshell these five functions focus on the relationship between personnel and management. Basically, they provide points of reference so that problems can be solved in an innovative and productive manner.

In addition to exposure to and learning about Fayol’s concepts in college, in many management courses on principles, functions, theories and so forth, you may also be exposed to group dynamics, Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory, McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, Taylor’s Scientific Management, Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management, and/or French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power.

The next question is which of these management theories is the best, is the most important, is something the student must learn and must abide by? Students should be exposed to as many different management theories and practices as possible. Based on experience, it is best to generalize one’s college education with a little of this and a little of that along with the required courses needed to complete training and to graduate.

Again, based on experience, when a newly graduated college student with a degree in management or other area related to management completes his or her area of study and graduates and enters the workforce, that person is not a manager. Being a college graduate is not a sure-fire element needed to manage, to be a manager.

What does it take to be a manager? What does it take to be an effective manager? A college degree in management opens the door for a new employee to become a manager but does not guarantee success. Success is accomplished via education plus on-the-job experience. Unless the new management graduate is a natural born leader, a General Patton, Stonewall Jackson, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, or someone of that flavor and natural ability, management must be learned; it must be groomed. Moreover, management must be generalized to the point whereby the prospective manager has the important mixture of managerial qualities including the physical, the mental, the moral, the technic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Author Biography
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 What Is Public Utility Management?
• Chapter 2 Current Management Issues in Water and Wastewater Treatment Operations
• Chapter 3 Water/Wastewater Infrastructure: Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
• Chapter 4 Characteristics of Wastewater and Drinking Water Industries
• Chapter 5 Planning for a Sustainable Energy Future
• Chapter 6 Energy Efficient Operating Strategies
• Chapter 7 Energy Conservation Measures for Wastewater Treatment
• Chapter 8 Digital Network Security
• Chapter 9 SCADA
• Chapter 10 IT Security Action Plan
• Chapter 11 Plant Security
• Glossary
• Index