Portsmouth Water has published its preliminary annual results for the year ended 31st March 2014.
Turnover for the year increased by 2% to £37.1m (£36.3m 2012/13) - largely due to higher consumption by non-household customers. Operating costs, excluding depreciation, increased by £1.2m in the year mainly due to the additional costs connected with the leakage recovery programme (£0.5m) and costs incurred in submitting the Company’s Business Plan to Ofwat for the period 2015 - 2020 (£0.3m). Operating costs were also £0.2m higher than the previous year due to additional pumping requirements. Operating profit was reduced to £5.9m (2013 - £6.3m). Gross capital investment during the year was £10.7m (2013 - £15.4m) and included £5.4m (2013 - £5.2m) on infrastructure renewals.
On operational issues, Portsmouth Water has reported good progress on its leakage recovery programme - for the full year 2013/14 average leakage was recorded at 29.5 Ml/d (2012/13 - 34 Ml/d). Last year the company carried out a full, independent review of its leakage calculation and methodology which confirmed that there was an error in the calculation of the leakage figure. This meant that the leakage level was higher than the utility had been reporting by approximately 6.6 Ml per day for 2011/12. The firm immediately put in place a programme to reduce leakage which began in November 2012, which was funded by shareholders.
Porstmouth Water has once again exceeded its target for water efficiency, claiming overall savings of 0.32 Ml/d, achieving a cumulative surplus of 0.12 M/ld against the Ofwat target in the four years of AMP5.
In October 2012 the water company successfully implemented a new billing and customer relationship management system – Portsmouth Water said that during 2013/14 the company had really started to see the benefits of the new system.
Following publication of its latest Water Resource Management Plan in November 2013, Portsmouth Water is projecting a water resource surplus in the period to 2040. As a result, the firm said it does not need to invest in new water resources to meet the needs of its own customers during this period. However, the firm has been approached by two neighbouring water companies to provide bulk supplies of water to meet the needs of their customers and these have been included in the Plan.
During the year Portsmouth Water renewed 24.7km of mains at a cost of £5.4m - the company’s out turn rates for mains renewals have improved from £260/metre during 2012/13 to £214/metre for 2013/14. The firm said the improvement was in part due to the use of prechlorinated pipe which has reduced installation time and an increase in the use of no dig techniques, which were used in 26.2% of mains renewal.
Gross expenditure on above ground assets at £4.2m included £0.4m on the construction of roofs over the Highwood raw water reservoir to reduce the risk of trihalomethanes and over the clarifiers at the River Itchen and Farlington treatment works in order to provide security for the open water at these sites. The schemes, which were a major part of the AMP 5 programme, have now been completed at a total cost of £6.2m. The firm also spent £0.3m connected with leakage improvements and £0.3m on refurbishment of pumps and motors at its Havant pumping station.
On metering, 4,873 customers chose to switch to a measured supply in 2013/14 – as at March 2014, meter penetration for the utility was 23% of household customers.
Portsmouth Water, a water-only supplier, currently has the lowest charges in England and Wales with an average customer bill of £94.
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