REGULATION OF WATER SERVICE QUALITY Paula Freixial

9th IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition

Lisbon, September 2014

CONTENTS

1. The role of the quality of service regulation in water sector regulation

Regulatory Model of ERSAR

Synergies between quality of service regulation and other behavioral regulation components

2. Assessment of water services

Procedures for implementing the assessment system

Measuring the quality of service

Goals to be achieved by operators

Publication of the results

Results of the quality of service regulation

Incentives and penalties

3. New challenges

1.THE ROLE OF THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

REGULATION IN WATER SECTOR REGULATION

Structural regulation of the sector:

Contribution to a better organization

of the sector

Contribution to the clarification of the rules

of the sector

Regulation of operator behavior

Legal and contractual monitoring

Economic regulation of operators

Quality of service provided

regulation

Water quality for human consumption regulation

Consumer complaint analysis

Complementary regulatory activities:

Development and dissemination of regular

information

Support for technical capacitation of the

operators

REG

ULA

TORY

MO

DEL

REGULATORY MODEL OF ERSAR

Structural regulation of the sector:

Contribution to a better organization

of the sector

Contribution to the clarification of the rules

of the sector

Regulation of operator behavior

Legal and contractual monitoring

Economic regulation of operators

Quality of service provided

regulation

Water quality for human consumption regulation

Consumer complaint analysis

Complementary regulatory activities:

Development and dissemination of regular

information

Support for technical capacitation of the

operators

REG

ULA

TORY

MO

DEL

1.THE ROLE OF THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

REGULATION IN WATER SECTOR REGULATION

REGULATORY MODEL OF ERSAR

SYNERGIES BETWEEN QUALITY OF SERVICE REGULATION AND

OTHER BEHAVIORAL REGULATION COMPONENTS

QUALITY OF SERVICE

REGULATION (QSR)

ECONOMIC REGULATION LEGAL AND CONTRACTUAL

REGULATION

USER INTERFACE

REGULATION

DRINKING WATER

QUALITY REGULATION

Information gathered in QSR:

- may lead to decisions regarding Economic

Regulation, due to the possible need for new

investment to improve Quality of Service.

- can and should be cross checked for validation,

interpretation and analysis purposes with information

Information gathered in QSR can contribute to:

- better organisation of the sector,helping to

identify any need for strategic reforms

- the clarification of rules of the sector, helping

to identify any need to modify legislation

- towards capacity building for the sector,

helping to identify any need to

carryout studies or training in this

area.

arising from Economic

Regulation.

Information gathered in QSR can and should be

cross checked for validation, interpretation and

analysis purposes with information arising from

Drinking Water Quality Regulation.

Information gathered in QSR can and should be

cross checked for validation, interpretation and

analysis purposes with information arising from

User Interface Regulation.

1.THE ROLE OF THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

REGULATION IN WATER SECTOR REGULATION

PROCEDURES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

Operator

Assessment specification

by ERSAR January

Processing & interpretation

by ERSAR June to August

Reporting by ERSAR October

Right-of-reply by the

operators September

Data validation by

ERSAR (audits) April to May

Data collection by the utility

March Portal

Guide

RASARP

Audits

Individual evaluation

form

Consumer

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

• “Guia de Avaliação da Qualidade dos Serviços de Águas e Resíduos Prestados aos Utilizadores - 2.ª Geração do Sistema de Avaliação”. – To be applied to all operators of

water services regardless the ownership and their management model.

– Applied from 2012, with 2011 data. All the operators must submit data to the ERSAR site until March, the 31st.

MEASURING THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Water supply services Wastewater services

Set of 16 performance indicators for each regulated service,

assessing:

Protection of users interests

Operator sustainability

Environmental sustainability

MEASURING THE QUALITY OF SERVICE

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

• ERSAR established goals for the operators:

Ex 1. AR02 - Economic accessibility of the service (%)

Ex 2. AR01 - Physical accessibility of the service (%)

These benchmarks are national goals for all retail operators in Portugal.

APR - rural area; AMU – moderately urban area e APU –urban area.

Indicator Good Acceptable unsatisfactory

0 - 0,5% 0,5 - 1,0% 1,0% - + ∞Affordability to the service

Indicator Good Acceptableunsatisfactory Good Acceptableunsatisfactory Good Acceptableunsatisfactory

90 - 100% 80 - 90% 0 - 80% 85 - 100% 70 - 85% 0 - 70% 90 - 100% 80 - 90% 0 - 80%

APR AMU APU

Physical accessibility of the service

GOALS TO BE ACHIEVED BY OPERATORS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Data processing and publication of the results…

… through a set of tools, ex.:

• Paper format (RASARP)

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Geographical distribution for each performance indicator

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Data processing and publication of the results…

… through a set of tools, ex.:

• Paper format (RASARP)

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Annual benchmarking for all the operators for each

performance indicator

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Data processing and publication of the results…

… through a set of tools, ex.:

• Paper format (RASARP)

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. Assessment of water services

Time evaluation for each performance indicator

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Annual assessment of the

quality of service provided

by each operator

Data processing and publication of the results…

… through a set of tools, ex.:

• Digital format (www.ersar.pt)

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. Assessment of water services

Data processing and publication of the results…

… through a set of tools, ex.:

• Digital format (app)

PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

RESULTS OF THE QUALITY OF SERVICE REGULATION

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

Increase in the number of responses from operators

Improvement in data collection quality and quantity had

an impact on quality of service assessment

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

PENALTIES AND INCENTIVES

Based on the goals defined in the quality of service assessment

ERSAR is going to approve a regulation that will impose the

obligation to pay compensations to the users whenever minimum

quality of service standards are not met

Ex: Service interruptions

2. ASSESSMENT OF WATER SERVICES

ERSAR has the statutory obligation to:

Disseminate information concerning high

performance cases;

Raise the community awareness to quality issues.

For all these reasons ERSAR decided to assign

the "Awards of Quality of Service in Water and

Waste".

PENALTIES AND INCENTIVES

Continue to improve the procedures to increase the data's

reliability and accuracy

Improve the articulation with the economic regulation

Adjust the goals of the indicators to address new emerging

challenges

Making the information easier to understand by the

consumer

3. NEW CHALLENGES

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION