Development of Robust Empirically Implementable Benchmarking Methodologies to Better Inform and Target Managerial Efforts to Improve the Cost

Development of Robust Empirically Implementable Benchmarking Methodologies to Better Inform and Target Managerial Efforts to Improve the Cost and Environmental Sustainability of Water and wastewater systems.

This PhD project will focus on internal disaggregated cost benchmarking so as to identify those internal activities and units where Anglian Water should target its performance improving efforts, as it aims to meet the challenge of substantially reduced cost allowances during the 2021-25 regulatory period. Benchmarking models which successfully describe Anglian Water operations will be shared with other UK water companies to enable industry-wide benefits to be gained. Potentially, this may allow absolute as well as relative efficiency measures to be developed through the blind pooling of results across multiple companies.

In sum, the project will develop and implement rigorous economically and engineering informed disaggregated cost assessment and performance benchmarking models of Anglian Water's water and/or wastewater systems with the objective of:

- providing actionable insights to operations managers and engineers about how and where to improve the cost efficiency of existing systems.

- identifying how differences in the operating characteristics of distinct treatment plants and operating regions influence the cost of providing water and wastewater services, and thereby inform operational and engineering decision making aimed at reconfiguring Anglian Water's waste and wastewater systems so as improve the long-term economic sustainability of its operations.

- facilitating Anglian Water's continuing efforts to effectively reduce water consumption and abstraction given climate change and increasing water scarcity, while also meeting increasingly stringent environmental standards for wastewater treatment, as well as regulatory commitments to improve consumer outcomes.


The project is well aligned with the EPSRC research strategy and priorities and particularly with the Living With Environmental Change theme, and its Water and Infrastructure sub-themes which emphasise the provision of reliable water infrastructure and the impact of environmental change on the sustainability of water provision.

In addition, the intended benchmarking methodologies and project objectives are well aligned with the EPSRC's Operational Research area, related to the "development and application of advanced analytical methods to support improved decision-making, especially in relation to the operation of complex and uncertain systems."

Given the significant role of engineering. geographic, spatial, and environmental determinants in explaining water and wastewater system costs, and the conceptual approach for this project discussed above, the project is also well aligned to the Water Engineering research area, which supports research focused on the long-term management of the water system and supports a whole-systems approach to ensuring that UK infrastructure is resilient.