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Setting out our responsibilities
Our Operating Licence is what allows us to supply you with drinking water, wastewater, recycled water and stormwater services. Our new Operating Licence 2024–2028, which includes our Customer Contract, began on 1 July 2024.
Our Operating Licence
In addition to allowing us to supply you with drinking water, wastewater, recycled water and stormwater services, our Operating Licence sets requirements for us to provide other services. These include:
- water quality
- asset performance, including system performance standards
- water conservation, including the Economic Level of Water Conservation (ELWC)
- climate-related planning and risk management
- environmental indicators and management
- customer and consumer rights in the Customer Contract.
As at 31 January 2021, we are also responsible for planning water supply augmentation, as directed by the Minister for Water. You can find out more in the Ministerial directive regarding supply augmentation planning for Greater Sydney.
Our Operating Licence allows us to provide water and wastewater services to Greater Sydney.
Operating Licence review
About every 5 years, IPART (the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) reviews our Operating Licence and Customer Contract. The review provides an opportunity for us, stakeholders and customers to comment on whether the licence and contract are working well or could be improved. After considering this feedback, IPART recommends a new version of the licence and contract to the Minister for Water.
IPART concluded its end-of-term review of our previous Operating Licence and Customer Contract, and recommended a new Operating Licence and Customer Contract to come into effect on 1 July 2024. Throughout the review, we engaged with customers and the community through Our Water, Our Voice to ensure we understood your priorities and the outcomes you expect us to deliver in the future. The insights we gained from Our Water, Our Voice on customer experience, our regulated service standards and levels have helped to shape our new Operating Licence 2024–2028 and Customer Contract.
You can find more information on our recent Operating Licence review process on the IPART website.
Customer Contract
The Operating Licence also contains our Customer Contract. This contract sets out our minimum service standards and outlines your rights and obligations as a customer. We summarise the full contract in Our contract with you. Once a year, we send a copy of this document to all customers with their bill.
Our Customer Contract includes diagrams that show who's responsible for maintaining authorised connections to our water and wastewater systems. Note that these diagrams are illustrative only: you shouldn't rely on them for any purpose other than to help you understand the provisions in this contract.
Water conservation
We continuously drive water efficiency.
To help us get value for money on our water conservation investment, we developed an approach called the Economic Level of Water Conservation (ELWC). This approach has been approved by IPART under our Operating Licence since 2016. We currently use the ELWC method to select our water conservation programs. The current value of water under the ELWC is outlined in the table below.
How the ELWC method works
When we decide whether to invest in water conservation projects, we look at the potential costs and benefits for:
- Sydney Water
- our customers
- the environment.
The ELWC responds to dam levels to determine the value of water.
The ELWC method adapts to changes in dam storage levels so we can make sure we're making the right investment at the right time. Each year, we report to the government on how we conserve water in our water conservation report. This report outlines our plan for the next 5 years, and how we used the ELWC to target our projects. It also reports on costs and water savings from our program across the year.
Learn more about the ELWC from:
The current value of water under ELWC
| March 2024 | April 2024 | May 2024 | June 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dam level at start of month | 93.5% | 92.0% | 96.5% | 98.4% |
| The value of water* | $1.53 / KL | $1.26 / kL | $1.14 / kL | $1.14 / kL |
| Economic level of savings | 14.1 ML / day | 14.1 ML / day | 14.1 ML / day | 14.1 ML / day |
* Note that 'the value of water' is NOT the price. The value reflects the worth of water depending on storage levels.
Climate-related planning and risk management
We recognise that we have a responsibility to reduce emissions and our impact on the environment, and to protect customers by adapting to the impact climate change will have on the city.
Our position on climate change adaptation is that we will plan and invest prudently to ensure we can maintain service levels by managing our climate risk. As part of our new Operating Licence, we'll be engaging in an ongoing climate risk assessment and management process that is consistent with the NSW Government's Climate Risk Ready NSW Guide and addresses climate-related risks specifically, including priority risks, mitigation actions and adaptation actions.
Information and services provided to competitors
In compliance with our Operating Licence, we're committed to sharing information with competitors. We will always:
- negotiate in good faith with licensees and potential competitors under the Water Industry Competition Act 2006 (WIC Act)
- publish servicing information
- establish a code of conduct with WIC Act licensees where required under a WIC Act licence.
Where to find published information
You'll find the latest servicing information about our major water and wastewater systems at Growth servicing and system capacity. We also publish servicing information in our Development Servicing Plans, which you'll find on the IPART website. Our aim is to help you make strategic decisions for development in our area of operations in Greater Sydney, encompassing Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra.
You can access our report on the provision of information and services to WIC Act licensees and potential competitors. We regularly review and update it to keep information current and relevant.
Have your say between now and 30 April
In line with our operating licence requirements, we will be reviewing and updating the servicing information during the current licence period. As part of the review process, we invite all:
- current WIC Act licensees
- industry peers seeking a WIC Act licence in the future
to provide written submissions on how useful you find our published servicing information. Help us to understand how it serves you, and what additional details you need from us. We'll present the outcomes of the review in a publicly available report by 30 June 2025.
Issues might include:
- How clear and comprehensive is the information we provide? Does it meet your needs as a WIC Act licensee stakeholder?
- What specific information are you seeking to aid in your strategic decisions?
- What is your feedback on the transparency and usefulness of the published information?
Please email your written submission to servicinginformationupdate@sydneywater.com.au. The deadline is 30 April 2025.