Utility Performance Management

Moonshot Missions CEO George Hawkins presenting a UPM Strategic Roundtable at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference

Last month, we talked at length about the hidden costs of deferred maintenance, and the importance of taking a big-picture approach to a utility’s planning and finances. This shift in mindset is at the core of Utility Performance Management -- a new way of thinking about the challenges utilities face.

George Hawkins, CEO of Moonshot Missions, describes an important realization from his time at DC Water. Traditional budget structures often treat proactive and innovative investments as separate from core operations. But as Hawkins and his colleagues recognized, that distinction was limiting—proactive and innovative thinking shouldn’t be a standalone category, but rather a lens applied across all decisions. It’s similar to triage vs primary care: triage solves the immediate problem, but with careful questions, time, and a treatment plan for the underlying conditions, a preventative care physician ultimately works toward a more holistic solution.  In addition to this triage care that is a necessary part of our work, Moonshot hopes to offer a kind of preventative care model - helping utilities move beyond reactive fixes toward a more proactive, integrated approach to long-term performance and resilience.

Utility Performance Management (UPM) is a structured, data-informed approach that helps utilities align budgeting, operations, staffing, and capital planning to achieve cleaner water at lower long-term cost. Moonshot Missions has launched a new initiative to strengthen water quality outcomes and long-term financial resilience, supported by a three-year, $1.1 million award from the Great Lakes Protection Fund (GLPF) to develop and pilot UPM at small and medium-sized utilities.

UPM will catalyze a basin-wide shift in how utilities are managed, budgeted, and led—unlocking often-overlooked levers for improving clean water outcomes that also improve operations and generate lasting cost savings. Those savings can then be reinvested into clean water projects, creating a self-sustaining cycle of ecological and financial gains using resources utilities already have.

As discussed in our WI and OH cohort meetings, this broader, big-picture approach can at times feel ambitious relative to the current capacity of small- to mid-sized utilities, requiring thoughtful scaling and support to make it actionable. That’s exactly why we are building a broader partner network. By engaging sector organizations, peer advisors, and technical experts, we aim to refine UPM so it is better tailored to the needs of small and mid-sized utilities. The partner network will also provide utilities with practical support, shared learning opportunities, and trusted pathways for implementation.

The Moonshot team has broken the UPM framework into four actionable steps that can allow you to find real value for your community above and beyond compliance:

1. Develop a business case by thinking about what problems need to be solved, brainstorming options, look at the full cost of these options, and evaluating using a series of tools;

2. Find quick wins that allow you to build internal support and test processes, identify small things that free up time, and begin to test your processes and framework;

3. Prioritize proactive asset management such as performing an asset inventory, evaluating your assets, and critically considering the elements of consequences or failures in this work; 

4. Explore innovative funding in order to find creative solutions to a perpetual problem. A big part of how we hope to help you establish a UPM mindset is through helping you think more broadly and practically about funding. Where can we lower costs or interest debt? What about implementing strategies such as sharing services, smart contracting, or task optimization? 

Our team is currently piloting UPM regionally, in Wisconsin and Ohio, through our PRESERVE Communities of Practice as well as the technical assistance (TA) we continue to provide.  Additionally, Moonshot Missions team members recently presented a UPM Strategic Roundtable at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, which brought together a variety of key stakeholders toward developing our partner network. This network will allow us to scale UPM concepts for various entities across the Great Lakes region and country. Resources to support this effort will also include a UPM Knowledge Hub hosted on the PRESERVE website, a UPM Replication Playbook, and a set of case studies documenting lessons learned.

To learn more and check in on how we can help you achieve your Utility Performance Management goals, please email preserve@moonshotmissions.org