The guidance for the Service Level Proclamation has been sent in for consultation.
At Envidan, we have contributed to the preparation of large parts of the guidance, and we are ready and have the expertise to help utilities and municipalities get started with the Service Level Proclamation. And we offer qualified assistance across the three P’s:
Process, Planning and Project Execution.
- Process – We help you understand the opportunities and constraints of the regulation and how the transition will be for co-financing projects. We facilitate the implementation of the decree and the cooperation between municipality and utility.
- Planning – We customize the wastewater plans and have the hydraulic, civil engineering and socio-economic skills to carry out the required analyses and deliver a useful result for further work.
- Project implementation – We deliver consultancy in connection with the design and construction of the measures, which may include traditional solutions with larger pipes, various forms of delay and storage of rainwater on the ground, SuDS (sustainable drainage systems), cloudburst roads, solutions in watercourses etc.
What is the Service Level Proclamation?
The Service Level Proclamation gives municipalities and utility companies new opportunities to implement measures for climate adaptation and cloudburst protection for the benefit of the municipality’s citizens and businesses. It came into effect at the beginning of 2021, and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency has just sent the guidance out for consultation.
Two key principles of the proclamation:
- The financing of measures can be done through the expansion of the utility’s revenue cap, i.e. paid for through higher tariffs.
- It is a requirement that the measures must be socio-economically appropriate, which is to be achieved by defining the optimal level of service for climate change adaptation. The requirement is that the savings from the reduced flood damage resulting from the climate adaptation measures must be greater than the costs of implementing them.
The measures may include a wide range of solutions, e.g. traditional solutions with larger pipes, various forms of delay and storage of rainwater on the ground, SuDS, the design of roads as cloudburst roads for the removal of rainwater, solutions in watercourses that improve the removal of roof and surface water etc.
In terms of planning, the determination of the service level must be anchored in the municipality’s wastewater plan, while the measures are designed and constructed by the wastewater company. Close cooperation between the utility and the municipality is thus envisaged.
