Expert Survey on Fee Models in German Waste Water Enterprises

Abstract

Wastewater utilities in Germany face a major challenge to keep prices stable while having a decreasing demand for fresh water at the same time. After all, the fixed costs form a substantial part of total costs and are in most cases accompanied by only a small fixed fee component. Low cost savings by declining volumes of waste water are absorbed by strong revenue declines immediately. Revenue stability overall is at risk. A reasonable tariff can curb this trend. This also applies to a source-based distribution of fixed costs to the individual customer groups. The present study continues a survey from last August, checking the mood for tariff conversion in the drinking water supply sector, which was also reported in the gwf. The relevance of this topic has now also been confirmed for effluent disposal. The majority of participants sees urgent action needs to make tariffs future-proof. Although each surveyed enterprise finds different structural conditions, a variety of tariff changes in the coming years is likely to happen.