Valor Water Helps Water Utilities Stay Afloat
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
As Americans Become Aware of the Need to Conserve Water, the Water Utilities Struggle to Stay Financially Sound as They Begin to Sell Less Water to their Customers
Valor Water Analyticsis a company moving into this largely ignored sector in order to provide utilities with software thatcan help them better understand how customers' changing water usage patterns will affect their bottom lines, and what they can do about it beyond just rushing toraise rates.
The company was founded by Christine Boyle, who holds a doctorate in water resource planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The idea for the software program actually came out of a grad school project, she says, where she had developed a set of analytical tools to help utilities who were struggling financially as customers conserved during a drought.
Though she first began working on the tools back in 2007, it took some time for her to license the technology from her university. But now Valor has a worldwide, exclusive, transferable license for the technology, and the software is currently being used by four utilities in N.C., including those inCary, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Chapel Hill area. These utility customers are pilot testing the program, butthey're not the first to have done so.
Valor is working with the Urban Water Consortium, explains Boyle, which directs which utilities will trial the program at what time. Over the years, Valor has worked with 15 utilities in total, she notes.
Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here
Media
Taxonomy
- Conservation
- Governance & Planning