PUC issues audit for Pennsylvania American Water

Nico Rossi
·2 min read

EYEWITNESS NEWS (WBRE/WYOU) — The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has released the results of a detailed management and operations audit of the Pennsylvania American Water Company (PAWC), which includes 31 recommendations for improving operations at PAWC.

The audit examined key areas at PAW, which serves around 679,000 water customers, and 97,000 wastewater customers in 37 counties, making it the largest service provider in Pennsylvania.

The PUC voted 5-0 at its December 21 public meeting to release the PAWC Audit Report, along with the Implementation Plan submitted by PAWC to address recommendations in the report.

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The PUC audit report includes recommendations that identify operational and service improvements for PAWC customers, including several significant items:

  • Reducing unaccounted-for-water (UFW) below the PUC’s 20% threshold and reporting UFW correctly.

  • Reducing line hits to the company’s underground facilities, including damage by PAWC employees and contractors.

  • Improving physical security for control rooms and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) control systems.

  • Improve customer service performance to pre-pandemic levels, at a minimum.

  • Continuing outreach efforts for payment from troubled customers and leveraging low-income resources to help reduce the level of outstanding customer balances.

In addition to the recommendations, the PUC audit report identified $4 million in one-time savings and around $3.1 million in annual savings, which if implemented correctly will give an overall cost savings for ratepayers.

PAWC`s implementation plan accepts 23 of the recommendations detailed in the PUC audit report and partially agrees with the remaining eight, indicating that most of the recommendations will be completely implemented by the end of 2024.

The PUC’s audit staff will examine PAWC’s implementation efforts related to the more significant recommendations during the next PUC Management Efficiency Investigation, which is expected to begin in early 2026.

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