Regulatory training course (March, Budapest)

(Before It's News)

Read aguanomics http://www.aguanomics.com/ for the world’s best analysis of the politics and economics of water Last year, I was pleased to participate in ERRA’s first regulatory training course,* which they are holding this year from 7-11 March in Budapest. (I can’t make it.)

I asked them for some “goodies” to help you readers see what’s going on, and they sent these:

• “The Role of Customers in the Strategic Review of Charges Process in the Water Industry in Scotland” [PDF] (Winner of ERRA’s competition for papers on water regulation)
• Brief summary of participant’s feedback [pdf]

Here’s the description:

The course features 5 days dedicated to the core responsibilities and activities of water utility regulatory authorities with regard to the oversight of the regulated utilities, principles and practices of tariff setting, performance benchmarking, and new developments in the regulation of the sector.

The level of the course is introductory: it aims to provide basic, but comprehensive training to the personnel of water regulatory authorities and water utilities. Participants will gain knowledge on key economic concepts guiding the operation of the sector, the challenges faced by sector participants including the wider problems of water management, and the role of the regulator and regulatory models including best practices. A core theme of the course is tariff setting and approval by the regulator: theoretical lessons will be supplemented by case study examples and a tariff setting exercise. Sufficient time will also be dedicated to the role of performance benchmarking in regulation.

Bottom Line I recomend that regulators from Europe and the Middle East who are looking for interesting and innovative ideas (Portugal’s regulator has an app that delivers data on water quality data, for example) attend this workshop!

• “Hot topics: Q and A with regulators” (PPS and 1h 24m MP3)
• “Fiscally and environmentally sustainable tariff designs from across the world” (PDF slides and 1h 35m MP3)

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