In 2021, the CIE has been working with Hunter Water Corporation to test whether there are water and wastewater network management approaches that would result in an improved price-service mix from a customer perspective.

One of the key challenges when evaluating alternative network management approaches is putting a dollar value on changes in service outcomes; that is, consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements or willingness to accept (WTA) bill reductions for degradation in service performance. Since it is not possible to observe customers choosing between differing levels of utility services at differing prices in a real market, the CIE conducted surveys of households and businesses in the Lower Hunter Region to estimate these values.

Our dedicated webpage for this project can be found here.