PSC Activities to Implement Recommendations of the Study Committee on Investor-Owned Water and Wastewater Utilities

• The Public Service Commission (PSC) has reached out to Department of Management Services (DMS) to offer our assistance to move forward on amending DMS rules to allow utilities access to the State Purchase Agreement. (Issue 1)
  
  
• The PSC has offered Florida Rural Water Association (FRWA) support for their online equipment exchange using our website. In an effort to better inform utilities and circulate the information, the PSC website will be linked to FRWA’s online equipment exchange portal. (Issue 1)
  
  
• The PSC, through an interagency initiative, is assisting the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to improve its Capacity Development program. Aspects of the Capacity Development program relating to the Study Committee recommendations include:
  
  
  • Expanding access to the State Revolving Fund (SRF) to improve funding opportunities for investor-owned water and wastewater utilities. PSC participation is to assist DEP on making SRF more accessible to utilities. (Issue 2)
    
    
  • The PSC is working with DEP to revise the Memo of Understanding between the agencies. One revision is to implement an exchange information relating service quality complaints. (Issue 9)

• The PSC has initiated three projects to address the Committee’s recommendations to review PSC policies and procedures:
  
  
  • Increase the use of technology to file reports and forms electronically. This project will work with utilities and PSC IT staff to provide a vehicle for filing forms and reports electronically. (Issue 11)
    
    
  • Improve PSC outreach to investor-owned water and wastewater utilities. The project objective is to better engage jurisdictional utilities in beneficial regulatory activities, by providing access to educational resources, communicating availability of funding, as well as providing training webinars. (Issue 12)
    
    
  • Development of metrics to help staff review utility operations. This project will focus on the development of metrics in an effort to enhance smaller utilities’ ability to operate more effectively and efficiently as well as investigate customer service benchmarks. (Issue 12)