Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
Welsh Water has set out its ambition to improve performance after its performance dropped for key metrics in 2023.
Compliance with wastewater discharge permits slipped slightly from 98.5% to 97.3% and pollution incidents increased from 89 to 107 year-on-year.
The company’s leakage for 2023-24 was 251.7 megalitres per day, which represented an increase of nine megalitres. It was recently reprimanded by Ofwat over leakage rates and required to restate its performance for 2020-23 after overinflating its own performance to suggest greater improvements had been achieved.
Company chair Alistair Lyons said: “Delivery is the overriding focus of the business for this and the coming year.”
He explained that the not-for-profit utility has set key targets to get performance back on track, particularly fewer pollution events, lower leakage rates, fewer supply interruptions and to improve drinking water quality.
On more positive performance highlights, its average supply loss in minutes almost halved from 44 minutes to 23 minutes.
The organisation completed 50 major schemes during the penultimate year of the current asset management period (AMP7) including to improve the health and aesthetics of 223km of rivers.
During 2023-24, the company’s capital expenditure programme was £483million, of the £2 billion AMP7 planned investment.
In the final year of the period, it aims to spend £457 million.
From 2025-30, it has proposed doubling its spending to more than £4 billion. This will include investment to remove 90% of the phosphates it is responsible for from treated wastewater.
Lyons said: “As we prepare for an increase of 118% in our capital expenditure in AMP8 compared with the current AMP we are well advanced with the procurement of the necessary contractor resources and with the design and preparation of the AMP8 Year 1 construction programme.”
The company aims to have £400 million of capital projects ready to start by the beginning of the new AMP.
It ranked fifth out of 17 companies in the customer satisfaction ratings C-MeX results, down from fourth the previous year. It remained the third highest rated water and sewerage company for customer satisfaction.
Gearing rose from 58% to 60% year-on-year, but remains far below the 2001 level of 93% geared. The company said its credit ratings continue to be amongst the strongest in the sector, which ensures access to funding at the lowest cost to keep bills low for customers.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.