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KBR and Aurecon have commenced a three-year appointment as Yarra Valley Water’s Capital Works Program Management Partner (PMP). Yarra Valley Water is the largest of Melbourne’s three retail water businesses providing water supply and sewerage services to around 2 million people and more than 50,000 businesses in the northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The team will support Yarra Valley Water in developing and implementing the program management operating model to achieve phased savings in capital expenditure, during the current pricing period which runs until 2023, to deliver the best community outcomes and keep the cost of water bills low. This is an innovative step-change that will better position Yarra Valley Water’s capital delivery process to achieve its goal to provide exemplary water and sanitation services that contribute to the health and wellbeing of current and future generations.

"We are really excited to have KBR and Aurecon partnering with us," said said Phong Nguyen, Divisional Manager of Delivery Performance at Yarra Valley Water. "Since the introduction of our capital works Project Management Office in 2017, we’ve been on a continuous improvement journey to uplift our process and practices to ensure we deliver on our customer promises and maximize our performance under the Essential Services Commission’s PREMO framework. The application of a program management operating model to the planning and delivery of capital works with our partners will result in more efficiencies and greater benefits for our customers going forward."

KBR’s Director of Program Management Consultancy Services, Carey Gent, said the KBR team is looking forward working with Yarra Valley Water and continuing its partnership with Aurecon in supporting another water utility in balancing outstanding customer benefits and program outcomes while driving efficiency and value through the delivery cycle.

"We are excited to bring over a decade of local PMC expertise, digital solutions and best practice experience to support and upskill the Yarra Valley Water team and are committed to working collaboratively as One Team to implement our program optimization process, which has been successfully implemented in both SA Water and Urban Utilities, creating multi-year rolling programs with smoother investment cycles and consistency and keeping Melbourne’s water bills to some of the lowest in Australia," Gent said.

Aurecon’s Managing Director, Victoria and South Australia, Angus Leitch, added that Aurecon would bring its extensive program advisory capabilities, including strategic planning, program management, strategic sourcing and capital delivery, to the regulated water environment where it is more important than ever that we plan for population growth as well as mitigate against future uncertainties in an holistic way across the water lifecycle and network.

"To achieve this, we will place the customer and community front of mind at every stage of the planning process,” Leitch said. "It’s about understanding the 5 ‘Cs’: what the customer needs, the impacts on the community, and delivering capital projects in a way that takes care of people to improve safety outcomes, reduces our carbon footprint and does so cost-effectively."

This is KBR and Aurecon’s third collaborative partnership together, supporting water utilities across the nation in their journeys to realizing savings in capital expenditure and community centric outcomes. This includes the role of Portfolio Delivery Management Partner (PDMP), supporting WaterNSW in managing drought response and water security projects, and as a member of the embedded team that is helping SA Water Corporation to deliver its $1.6 billion four-year capital works program (Our Plan 2020-24).