Benchmarking the efficiency of natural gas distribution utilities in Italy considering size,ownership, and maturity

In light of the reform of the Italian natural gas distribution introduced in 2007, this work performs a benchmarking and productivity analysis of distribution utilities, identifying the characteristics allowing greater efficiency. Using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI), we analyse the performances of utilities and compares them in terms of size, ownership (public or private), and maturity (pre or post-liberalization establishment). The results show that the more efficient utilities are mainly publicly owned and pre-liberalization established. Small and medium-sized utilities operate less efficiently than large ones, revealing the scale inefficiency of the sector.     

Privatizing water supply in Hong Kong

With the exception of the water supply industry, all major utilities in Hong Kong are owned and operated by private enterprises. In terms of price, returns, and productivity, the water supply industry in Hong Kong compares unfavourably with privately-owned utilities. The financial performance of the Water Supplies Department has been deteriorating in recent years. In order to improve the performance of the water supply industry, the Hong Kong Government should consider inviting the private sector to run the industry. Hong Kong can learn from other countries with regard to reforms made in the water supply industry.     

Water company productivity change: A disaggregated approach accounting for changes in inputs and outputs

The assessment of the productivity change of water utilities provides essential information to sector managers and regulators. This study uses the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen Productivity Indicator (LHMPI) to evaluate productivity change as it can be further decomposed into three components namely technical change (TC), technical efficiency change (TEC), and scale efficiency change (SEC). This study evaluates the productivity of several water companies in England and Wales from 2001 to 2018. We found that productivity declined 1.2% per year due to the use of inputs that increased by 1.4% per year relative to outputs that increased by 0.2% per year.     

Worldwide evidence of corporate governance influence on ESG disclosure in the utilities sector

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure in the utilities sector. We collected data from the Eikon Refinitiv database on 265 worldwide organisations operating in the utility sector during the 2011–2019 period.Findings evidence that board independence and the existence of a specific Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/sustainability committee constitute positive drivers of utilities’ overall ESG disclosure levels. Also, board size positively influences environmental and social disclosure.The study would encourage utilities to define their internal corporate governance mechanisms carefully, devoting primary attention to an accurate selection of the board of directors members.     

How are public utilities responding to electricity market restructuring and the energy transition? Lessons from Israel

Public utilities in the electricity sector globally face increasing competition in the power generation segment, specifically considering government liberalization reforms that facilitate the clean energy transition process. Although the utilities may significantly impact this process, the literature has thus far neglected the perceptible strategies they employ to cope with the emerging competition, particularly with regard to renewable energy resources. This study addresses the lacuna by focusing on the case of Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), demonstrating how the coping strategies employed by this public utility evolved over time and thus shaped the local electricity sector.     

Water services performance: do operational environment and quality factors count?

Decision makers must keep in mind that water services have an invaluable ‘price’ for the public budget and society’s welfare. However, due to the specific features of the service, water utilities are prone to inefficiency. Thus, performance evaluation becomes indispensable to face this constraint. Besides the application of the traditional technique of Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate the performance of Portuguese water utilities, this study also implements the robust technique of order-m to assess the influence of operational environment on water utilities’ performance. In spite of several reforms, the Portuguese water sector still reveals significant levels of inefficiency, partially caused by an inappropriate operating scale. Concerning the operational environment, it was possible to observe a positive influence of private sector participation, economies of scope, and groundwater sources on efficiency. The influence of the ‘quality of service provided’ was also studied in this performance analysis.     

Human resource training to implement transmission schemes for renewable power evacuation in India

This paper presents a detailed study of existing training practices in the electricity transmission utilities, focusing on the Rajasthan state of India. Inference from data collected using questionnaire is used to investigate existing training practices and assess future training requirements. A model is designed to assess employees' training and development requirements (TDRE). Transmission utilities can effectively utilize this model to improve the performance of their workforce involved in executing transmission schemes for evacuation of renewable power. This model can help to frame training policies for the people employed in power utilities and can be deployed explicitly to execute transmission schemes and renewable power evacuation schemes to achieve the employee's expected performance.     

Efficient resource utilization of the electricity distribution sector using nonparametric data envelopment analysis and influential factors

This study aims to investigate the efficient resource utilization of the electricity distribution sector in Pakistan and identifies the influential factors affecting it. In Pakistan, there is excess production capacity and under-utilized power plants, which pose a challenge to the economy due to their burden on the exchequer account and the high power costs. The present study employs the most recent 11 distribution firms panel data from Pakistan for the period 2016–2020 to evaluate the performance ranking of distribution utilities. The study employs standard frontiers, composite indexes, and a novel DEA-windows analysis to measure the efficiency of the distribution utilities. The results of the analysis show that electricity sales, consumer density, and industrial consumers have a positive impact, while distribution losses have a negative association with the efficiency of the distribution utilities. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders in improving the resource utilization and overall performance of the electricity distribution sector. The study highlights the implications of the results in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are one of the main contributors to global warming. In conclusion, this study provides an essential contribution to the literature on efficient resource utilization in the electricity distribution sector in Pakistan.     

Efficiency and productivity of renewable energy technologies: Evidence from U.S. investor-owned utilities across regional markets

This study employs a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) modeling technique to investigate the efficiency and productivity of renewable energy (RE) adoption across technologically diverse electricity-generating utilities. By employing metrics capturing policy effects, the study evaluates the RE adoption efficiency and productivity using a dynamic DEA model and the Malmquist DEA technique. First, the findings reveal that RE adoption is not significantly different across regional electricity markets. Second, the study revealed that RE adoption increased over the last three years. The total mean productivity change over the entire study period showed a mean improvement of 4.8%.     

Sustainability reporting and ESG performance in the utilities sector

In the last few years, many policymakers started implementing stricter rules about sustainability reporting in their jurisdictions. However, this process has been characterized by criticisms related to the potential misalignments between Environmental, Social and Governance factors (ESG) performance and sustainability reporting quality. This evidence is particularly relevant for the utilities sector because of the existence of reputational risks associated with their activities. The paper aims to contribute to the debate through novel insights about the nonlinear relationship between sustainability reporting quality and ESG performance in the utilities sector.     

Collaboration in disasters: A cultural challenge for the utilities sector

Understanding the interdependency of organizations in a disaster is necessary to facilitate collaboration. Interdependencies in the utilities sector have traditionally focused upon the technical aspects of these dependencies. This research used empirical research methods that included an observational study of utility stakeholders during a real-time disaster. The study investigated the cultural challenges associated with the socio-cultural interdependencies that stakeholders from the utilities sector encountered when working in emergency management. Participants identified that a lack of legitimacy and trust created barriers to collaboration. The paper concludes with recommendations for the industry to address the potential cultural barriers encountered in a disaster.     

Agglomeration, productivity, and spatial spillovers across Chinese cities

This paper investigates the causal relationship between, and the determinants of, urban labor productivity and industrial agglomeration across Chinese cities. We extend the Ciccone and Hall (Am Econ Rev 86(1):54–70, 1996) production density model by distinguishing between the size of the industrial sector and the density of the urban economy in order to examine the effects of industry agglomeration and congestion on urban productivity. We also account for the endogeneity of industrial agglomeration and propose a simultaneous equation model to estimate the determinants of urban productivity and agglomeration. A spatial econometric analysis across 617 Chinese cities in year 2005 shows that the spatial concentration of industrial production is an important cause of higher productivity in large industrial cities and cities in neighboring regions, where higher productivity resulting from concentrated industrial production then leads to further agglomeration in these cities. Controlling for the size of the industrial sector, employment density has a negative effect on urban productivity. We conclude by briefly discussing potential policy implications of the empirical findings.     

Utilities reforms and corruption in developing countries

This paper shows empirically that “privatization” in the energy, telecommunications, and water sectors, and the introduction of independent regulators in those sectors, have not always had the expected effects on access, affordability, or quality of services. It also shows that corruption leads to adjustments in the quantity, quality, and price of services consistent with the profit-maximizing behavior that one would expect from monopolies in the sector. Finally, our results suggest that privatization and the introduction of independent regulators have, at best, only partial effects on the consequences of corruption for access, affordability, and quality of utilities services.     

Moving urban water infrastructure asset management from science into practice

iGPI, the National Initiative for Infrastructure Asset Management is a Portuguese collaborative project led by LNEC (National Civil Engineering Laboratory, Portugal) through which 19 water utilities develop their own infrastructure asset management (IAM) systems and plans in a joint training and capacitation programme. Technical assistance to the participating utilities is ensured by LNEC, IST (Technical University of Lisbon) and Addition, a software development company. The water utilities get collective as well as one-on-one support and specific training. They benefit from networking with the other utilities in a common and simultaneous process, with similar difficulties and challenges, leading to an effective sharing of solutions. The developed products, including training materials, templates and guidelines for developing strategic and tactical IAM plans, are available to the general public. This project has greatly contributed to the establishment of reference methodologies and standards for IAM planning, in a range of utilities of widely diverse size and context, effectively defining an accepted best practice. This paper discusses the project's format and its advantages, and goes on to describe the main outcomes, including selected cases and final products.     

Real-life resilience: Exploring the organisational environment of international water utilities

The water sector has signalled the need to advance organisational and social resilience efforts. There is a lack of understanding of whether the organisational environment in water utilities is conducive to organisational resilience. Themes from interviews showcased challenges related to cognitive and contextual organisational properties. We identified a need to broaden the cognitive frame of utilities to account for flexible concepts of enhanced sense-making. We propose categories of organisational silos and a set of cultural attributes that contribute to organisational resilience. Interventions are needed to develop the cognitive, behavioural, and contextual properties of utilities that support organisational resilience.     

An analysis of construction productivity differences between Canada and the United States

Comparisons of industry sectors in advanced economies since the 1960s show that the construction sector has lagged in productivity growth rates, especially in the United States. Although the US and Canadian economies are highly integrated, Canada’s experience differs in key ways. Analysis of these differences offers insight into fundamental construction productivity drivers. Three levels of analyses of construction productivity in the US are provided in this study. The first analysis compared international levels of labour productivity growth. The second compared construction productivity between the US and Canada, and the third analysed cost estimating data from RS Means estimating manuals to measure the changes in labour and partial factor productivity in the US from 1995 to 2009. Statistical significance testing indicates that labour productivity remained nearly constant in the building sub-sector and that partial factor productivity has improved at an annual compound rate of 0.66%. This supports previous findings that US construction has stagnated but is still improving in Canada, with wage differentials and training systems as potential drivers of this difference. While growth rates of productivity seem to decline with higher absolute levels of productivity, there is no evidence that high absolute productivity levels preclude significant growth.     

Operating in the shadowland: Why water utilities fail to manage decaying infrastructure

Decaying water infrastructure is a growing challenge in high-income countries while at the same time being under pressure from other socioeconomic and environmental issues. This paper analyses why addressing these challenges is so challenging, despite the critical role of water service for society. The paper is based on a study of the Swedish water sector and reveals how the utilities are influenced by several factors that constrain their agency. Most importantly, the utilities operate in a ‘societal shadowland’ where the public and politicians take their services for granted, lowering the sense of urgency and impeding their ability to take action.     

Assessing the dynamic eco-efficiency of Italian municipalities by accounting for the ownership of the entrusted waste utilities

This study evaluates and compares the dynamic eco-efficiency of municipalities with publicly owned, privately owned, and mixed ownership solid waste utilities by estimating the Meta-frontier Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index for a sample of 68 major Italian towns. On average, the eco-productivity of Italian waste service providers increased by 8% from 2016 to 2019. Although municipalities with private utilities improved their eco-productivity most, the differences among the three clusters reflecting utility ownership are not statistically significant. The results show that publicly owned waste operators drive technology and that the technological levels of private utilities have deteriorated relative to global technological progress.     

Cost and productivity effects of demographic changes on local water service

We investigate the impact of demographic changes on local public services taking the case of water service. We apply a structural production function approach to a large panel of German water utilities between 2003 and 2014. Exploring variation of population density and the population age structure across service areas and over time, we provide evidence that demographics and their changes significantly affect the utilities’ productivity and costs. We find that demographic changes cause significant cost increases in rapidly shrinking and ageing regions. Our results provide important policy implications regarding the prevention of growing regional disparities in public services.     

Benchmarking Central American water utilities

This study provides a comprehensive efficiency analysis of water service providers in six countries in the Central American region. Pressures for sector reform have stimulated interest in identifying and understanding the factors that can contribute to network expansion, improved service quality, and cost containment. The aim is to provide policy-makers and investment funds institutions with quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of the regional water sectors and utilities under different perspectives. In addition to key sector performance indicators, the analysis considers several benchmarking methodologies to assess technical and cost efficiency.