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Is your company really serious about reducing water and waste water bills?
Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.
Since the competitive water retail market opened up in Scotland April 1st 2008 which allowed for all 138,000 businesses, public sector, charitable and not for profit organisations to switch water supplier from the incumbent water supplier Business Stream, companies both large and small have been switching water supplier, or indeed negotiating with the incumbent water supplier Business Stream for a better value service (note the wording as this is very important).
How does the competitive water retail industry work in Scotland?
The water and waste water pipes are owned by Scottish Water the wholesaler, which in turn sells water and waste water services to the water companies and new licenced water suppliers, the water suppliers then bundle the water services with other value added services and sell them to customers. This is fine in principle but what is the reality?
Lets start at the top of the tree, say the largest users are they getting the best value deal possible? – No they are not and very far from it!
I have studied varying client accounts, certainly in the instances where I have completed water audits these clients were with 2 water companies and there were incorrect tariffs, overcharging, high billing issues, in addition I could deliver in excess of £200,000 worth of additional savings on the water and waste water procurement alone, £650,000 over a standard 3 year term for each client, never mind the additional infrastructure savings and billing errors and believe me this was basic stuff!
The companies who are large users in Scotland are certainly not getting full advantage of the available water savings and that includes the public sector in Scotland!
Now what about the middle users?
Well no different again water audits completed on manufacturing businesses which were ill advised, they were not receiving the best value deal, the tariffs were incorrectly levied and there were over £250,000 worth of savings available, again signed up with a large water company.
Swimming pools and leisure clubs again water audits completed, the deal offered and unfortunately taken was not the best value deal and there were substantial savings on the water bills which were not dealt with.
I have also seen quite serious overcharging on water bills whereby the client has switched water supplier and the charges were incorrectly levied, in one case over £20,000 in overcharges on one site alone!
These examples I have given are not rare occurrences, they are unfortunately coming through with increased frequency, it is my firm belief a very large proportion of business customers in Scotland are not getting the best value deal that they think they are getting. The fact is water companies are in business for profit, they are not charities, the smaller new licensed water providers do not have the real technical expertise to truly service customers interests and some of them I am sure are simply building business rapidly at any cost to sell on at profit to an already crowded Scottish water market.
Is your company really serious about reducing water and waste water bills? Search for “The Water Audit Experts”, we “Value Water More” and I will prove it to you.