American Journal of Water Science and Engineering

Special Issue

Impact of Climate Change on the Utility Companies’ Level of Service

  • Submission Deadline: Mar. 17, 2022
  • Status: Submission Closed
  • Lead Guest Editor: Javad Shafiei Shiva
About This Special Issue
Utility companies define the Level of Service (LoS) based on the regulatory drivers, corporate goals, and regional demands. LoS defines the quantity and quality of services clients receive in any region. Utility companies will face financial loss if they cannot provide the minimum services to their clients. These companies modify their LoSs based on the change in the drivers periodically. While regulatory drivers are the main components of the LoS list, they do not get updated based on climate change drivers. This trend has been an industrial norm for many decades in the United States. Recently, climate change and consequently, the need for a different level of service have posed new challenges for utility companies to provide quality services. For example, recent wildfires in the USA showed how water distribution systems are sensitive and how this disaster can impact the quality and quantity of service for the impacted clients in the region. Accordingly, it looks like updated regulatory driers need to include climate change as an important driver for defining LoS. Importantly, they have to focus on the regional demands rather than nationally accepted minimum requirements for LoS.
To do this, more research is needed to determine the regional effect of climate change on the utility companies and the ways how they can adopt this rapidly emerging driver in their planning.

Keywords:

  1. Climate Change
  2. Level of Service
  3. Water
  4. Energy
  5. Supply/Demand
Lead Guest Editor
  • Javad Shafiei Shiva

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, United States