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By this date SWDE hopes to be one of the most pro-fitable European water operators from a financial point of view. More specifically this would mean that by reducing its operating costs, the Société wal-lonne des eaux (Walloon Water Company) would be able to achieve its first two aims. First of all it would be able to provide people with good quality water at a reasonable price (with the criterion being that the water bill should never be more than 0.5% of the average annual expenses of a Walloon household), and secondly, it could continue to be a major ope-rator for regional development by maintaining an average annual investment plan of 125 million euros, thus guaranteeing that the company will continue to benefit future generations.

PROSPECTS FOR 2022

INFLUENTIAL FACTS AND FIGURES FROM 2014

SWDE SHARE WALLONIA’S PERFORMANCE CHALLENGE FOR 2022

SWDE has defined 7 PRIORITY STRATEGIC ACTIONS to help it achieve this very clear cost-reduction objective.

1. ORGANISING LEAN ACTIVITIES PER SECTOR

In 2013 the SDWE launched a “Lean” project with the aim of simplifying and rationalizing the business organisa-tion and decision-making processes. The Distribution and Production sectors identified 5 projects according to their potential contribution towards simplifying the system and their impact on operating costs:

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

The objective is to reduce energy requirements by 15% over 10 years. The SWDE has negotiated an industry-wide agreement with the Walloon region, whereby its efforts to reduce energy consumption and the gas emissions responsible for the greenhouse effect are rewarded by tax and financial incentives.

An energy metering system will be able to monitor the volumes of energy consumed, identifying losses more easily, and taking corrective measures if required.

ORGANISATION OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE IN PRODUCTION

Combined with remote management (see page 3) this reorganisation of electrical engineers’ shifts will help to prioritise maintenance works. Reducing the number of incidents by anticipating them will help to lower the number and cost of interventions.

IDENTIFYING LEAKS

Pilot experiments conducted on several SWDE sites have shown that the network’s output improves when teams can devote themselves exclusively to looking for leaks, without being distracted by other tasks. Incidents can

be tracked down more quickly. Once again, centralising the information means that more effective plans can be made for the teams involved in the intervention. The pilot phase has come to an end. From September onwards the project will be rolled out throughout the SWDE.

CIVIL ENGINEERING WORKS

SWDE’s field of expertise associated with works on the public highway relates to laying and maintaining water engineering systems. The teams in the distribution sec-tor will concentrate on these activities. All the other civil engineering tasks will be outsourced to subcontractors (who also concentrate on this work). This should allow the SWDE to be even more successful in returning a work-site to its original condition.

PRODUCED VOLUME 171,401,998

m3

DISTRIBUTED

VOLUME

102,292,902m3

TOTAL LENGTH OF PIPES

37,858 KM

MAINTENANCE OF UNITARY APPARATUS

Teams that no longer have to carry out civil engineering work (see previous point) will be able to concentrate on preventive maintenance of the 150,000 valves in the SWDE distribution network. The aim is to anticipate in-cidents, thus limiting their severity, in addition to leng-thening the lifetime of the equipment. The impact on controlling operating costs is bound to be positive.

Social fund and tax receipts (constant price since 2009)

Part related to sanitation (constant price since 2009)

Part related to distribution (constant price since 2009)

Amount of average invoice

50

250

150

350

100

300

200

400

450

500

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

in €

TREND IN THE AMOUNT OF THE AVERAGE INVOICE (2009-2014)

LABORATORY ANALYSES PERFORMED

89,097

SURFACE AREA

COVERED12,742 km2

2. DYNAMIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

PROFESSIONAL SECTORS

SWDE’s performance also depends on the professional and individual fulfilment of its personnel. Since the second half of 2014 the various professions existing in SWDE have been restructured into career sectors. Each sector has its own recruitment conditions with opportunities to progress within the hierarchy or move within the company. Seniority is no longer the only criterion for salary increases. Promotion can now be accelerated if training is undergone and certificates obtained. The SDWE would also like to reward merit and motivation in this way.

3. IMPLEMENTING THE PRODUCTION MASTER PLAN

In order to guarantee security of supply in the region and to rationalize its production equipment, the SWDE has identified 12 water interconnection and conveyance sites to be created by 2022, for an amount in the region of 250 million euros. They will be able to link up the distribution networks, both in Wallonia (not just SWDE ones) and out-side it (e.g. Flanders, and bordering countries).

These interconnections will allow the various operators to set up the least expensive solutions (increasing infra-structures or buying water from a partner) in order to boost secure supplies throughout their area and in order to use resources in the best possible way.

4. DEVELOPMENT OF REMOTE MANAGEMENT

Combined with the central dispatching project, remote management will allow the monitoring, management and optimisation in real time of the SWDE’s technical installa-tions. By means of improved early detection, maintenance, energy consumption and the risk of client incidents will be significantly reduced. 25,000 € have been allocated to this project over 5 years to be spent on on-site equipment, tele-communications and industrial computing tools. 5. IMPROVEMENT OF NETWORK

PERFORMANCES

Leak identification and effective investments in network re-newal must be reinforced.The Télérelève (remote recording) system was tested in 2014. Flowmeters and dataloggers electronically record and trans-mit incoming and outgoing amounts for a distribution zone. Information is collected in 24 hours, compared with a week when a manual recording is taken. Leaks are identified more quickly, significantly reducing the severity of incidents and inconvenience for residents. This should help to reduce net-work losses by 8 million m3 by 2022.

6. IMPROVEMENT OF AWARENESS OF TECHNICAL ASSETS

This involves continuously supplementing the GIS (Ge-ographic Information Systems) database linked with the technical databases, by forwarding information from the field, in order to roll out optimum operational strategies.

In 2014 the SDWE was one of the key players in compiling the “Charte Wallonne des Impétrants pour la Sécurité et la Coordination des Chantiers en Domaine Public” (Wal-loon Charter of Applicants for the Security and Coordina-tion of Worksites within the Public Domain) of which it is a member, together with numerous cable and pipe oper-ators. It is also affiliated to the Point of Contact fédéral Informations Câbles et Conduites (federal Point of Con-tact for Cable and Pipe Information) [also available under the portal heading KLIM-CICC] in order to provide infor-mation about the presence of the installations it owns. Any site contractor may access this information simply by requesting it. In 2014 SWDE automated the procedure. A request for a plan of underground installations now re-ceives a virtually immediate response.

7. DEVELOPMENT OF CLIENT INTERACTION

SWDE is hoping to roll out e-services, provide better cus-tomer information and encourage zero-paper billing.

A portal allowing on-line transactions and e-services has been operational since October 2014. This new web site can be accessed in 4 different languages on PC, tablets and smartphones.The Espace client [Customer Space] (accessible from the home page) allows customers, after registering, to encode their meter index, consult consumption and invoice histo-ry, move in/move out, change the payment schedule, etc.

The section entitled Dans votre commune, [in your area], which is also accessible from the home page, supplies in-formation about the quality of the water in the custom-er’s street, what building work is planned there and what disturbances this may cause (interrupted supply, drop in pressure, etc.). All the SWDE worksites come up on a map which states how extensive these works are and how long they will last.

STAFF MEMBERS

1,417 (Full time equivalents)

POPULATION SUPPLIED2,433,303 CUSTOMERS

METERS IN OPERATION1,055,602

AVERAGE CONSUMPTION PER HOUSEHOLD IN 2014 : 95.68 m3 (96.27 m3 IN 2013)

2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

m3

106.2 102.8 101.7 98.62 95.68

m3 m3 m3 m3

The complete 2014 annual report is available on www.swde.be/en/2014annualreport

MUNICIPALITIES SUPPLIED

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TOTAL ASSETS

1,867,088 thousand €

TURNOVER

457,211 thousand €

OPERATING RESULT 11,141

FINANCIAL RESULT -8,092

EXTRAORDINARY RESULT -1

INCOME TAXES -279

NET RESULT 2,769IN T

HO

US

AN

DS

OF

€

NET WORKING CAPITAL/TOTAL ASSETS

DEBT RATIO 19.46%

GROSS FINANCIAL DEBT361,998 thousand €

EBIDTA110,986 thousand €

TURNOVEREXCLUDING SANITATION

297,284 thousand €

SOLVENCY 69.31 %

INVESTMENTS MADE IN 2014

110,923 thousand €Localisation des secteurs

Bassin Escaut

Bassin Meuse

BREAKDOWN OF COMPANY CAPITAL (SHARES A)TOTAL SHARE CAPITAL : 1,252,460,450 €

Provinces

Municipalities

Walloon region / SPGE

Public financing companies

Intermunicipal companies

58 %

4 %

29 %

8 %1 %

75 millions

20 millions

2,5 millions

2,5 millions

25 millions

3.58%

(Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortisation)