Success Story: Asset Management: The Art of balancing Performance, Risk and Cost

Aging fixed assets result in increasing operational and servicing costs, which must be managed by weakened service capacity. The IAM Approach provides water utilities with improved management, better services, increased financial benefits, higher creditworthiness, and enhanced compliance and transparency. The Municipality of Elbasan has agreed to participate in the Integrated Asset Management for Water Utilities in South-Eastern Europe Program, a strategic alliance jointly financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the private partner HydroComp (HCE). The program is coordinated through the hub of the Water Supply and Sewerage Association (SHUKALB) for Albania. Due to the Elbasan Water Utility's large size, the program's standard operating procedures, PLGP will provide additional support and capacity building assistance to prepare datasets for data conversion and evaluations. PLGP Asset Management experts have been working with the Elbasan Water Utility technical staff to design a Utility Asset Management Approach. This includes building asset datasets with proper attributes, transposing all data information into the Asset Management Platform, and operating the Asset Management Software effectively. The process has been monitored daily by the EDAMS' team using a cloud-based, online platform. As a result, the main transmission network of the urban area and approximately 50% of the water supply network served by Elbasan Water utility have been uploaded onto the EDAMS Platform. The Elbasan staff is registering all rural systems and Water Supply System GIS data in villages are being converted and uploaded to the EDAMS Platform. This has been challenging work, as the utility lacks proper water supply system maps, making it difficult to locate buried assets throughout the territory of Elbasan Municipality. More than 170 km of water supply pipes, 3 main reservoirs sites, and 3 main well fields have been uploaded to the EDAMS. The PLGP experts are supporting the water utility's technical staff to validate this data and will continue to assist them with subsequent issues that may arise during the operation of the EDAMS Platform. Proper Asset Management can help utilities maximize the value of their capital as well as their operations and maintenance costs. Strategic asset management is not necessarily based on the quantity of resources you have, but rather developing an appropriate plan and implementing streamlined processes and procedures to maximize the investment in those resources. The Elbasan Water Utility's Technical Director, Mr. Doçi, has expressed his commitment to embracing the IAM Approach, which will guarantee improvement in all technical, financial, and service aspects of the utility.