Albany Utilities Study Targets Efficiency, Savings
Albany city officials this week received a report by the Vinson Institute analyzing whether modifying municipal utility system operations can improve efficiency and save taxpayers money.
The study by Vinson's Governmental Research and Services Division analyzes a series of options for organizing Albany's Water, Gas & Light (WG&L) Department and was prepared by Senior Public Service Associate John O'Looney and Public Service Associate Langford Holbrook.
WG&L provides electricity, water, and natural gas to thousands of customers in and around the southwest Georgia city. The utility system is owned by the city of Albany and is overseen by a five-member commission that sets rates and collects water, gas, and electricity revenue.
The city hired the Institute to investigate how other municipal utilities are organized and whether consolidating some WG&L functions with those of other city departments could provide significant savings for the government and taxpayers.
"Some of the functions of operating WG&L, like information technology, occur elsewhere in the city's general government, and we examined what your options are for making operations more efficient," said O'Looney.
WG&L supplies electricity to 37,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers; provides water for about 35,000 consumers both in Albany and outside the city limit; and pipes natural gas to more than 27,000 addresses for home and business applications.
The Vinson study examines potential economies of scale and potential costs and benefits of consolidating with city departments some of WG&L's operational functions, like finance and accounting, human resource management, purchasing, and information technology.
The study included a review of case studies of cities with municipal utility systems, followed by a detailed examination of the Albany city government and WG&L organizational structures. The report provides a number of options for ways to retain the advantages of separate structures, to build on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of consolidated management systems, or to create a unique hybrid organizational structure.
"In presenting these options, we simply lay out the gist of the idea, recognizing that to implement the option may require additional specifications and detail," O'Looney said.
