5.1. ERMUSR 12-14-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.5099 TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Troy Adams, P.E. - Director of Operations John Dietz, Chair Jerry Gumphrey, Vice Chair Daryl Thom son, Trustee MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: December 14, 2010 5.1 SUBJECT: Utility Benchmarking Analysis BACKGROUND: In May 2010, Grand Rapids Public Utilities Commission (GRPUC) in cooperation with the City of Grand Rapids hired Collaboration Unlimited, a management consulting firm which specializes in public utilities, to perform an organization and performance analysis. Elk River Municipal Utilities assisted with the study by participating in a survey to establish quantitative benchmazki~tg for the performance and efficiencies of their utilities. Collaboration Unlimited collected data from 18 Minnesota municipal utilities of which 13 provided electric utility services and 17 provided water utility services. The survey population included lazge and small Cities/utilities with geographical diversity. DISCUSSION: The data collected for the GRPUC analysis was also used to benchmark ERMU against the other surveyed utilities. It is quantitatively appazent that ERMU is operating very efficiently. This ERMU specific benchmazking analysis is attached for Commission review. Of the surveyed utilities, ERMU is on the low end of the spectrum for number of employees, on the large end for service territory size, and has slightly more customers that the survey average. The total number of customers per full time equivalent (FTE) employee is better than the average by 8% and slightly below average by 3% for the number of customers per customer service FTE. These numbers aze respectable, yet they do not actually reflect reality. In addition to our electric, water, and security customers, ERMU is staffed to process, bill, and maintain customer accounts for 4457 waste water customers and 6862 garbage customers. In discussion with Collaboration Unlimited, these customers were not taken into account in the survey and they concur that these additional customers would positively impact the results for ERMU's benchmazking analysis. In the electric department, ERMU serves 9% more customers on 38% more miles of distribution line per FTE than the survey averages. The reliability indexes confirm that ERMU provides very reliable electrical services. The water department serves 72% more customers on 28% more miles of distribution and pumps nearly 400% more gallons per FTE than the survey averages. Overall, ERMU is doing more with less while continuing to "provide safe, reliable, cost effective and quality long term electric and water utility service". v~ ~r ACTION REQUESTED: No action required.