WIIC. the working example
Built from the Indiana and South Carolina working prototypes

Indiana and South Carolina already have regulators, engineers, trainers, utilities, and funding agencies. WIIC gives them one shared record to work from.

TORBU governs the record. WIIC provides the certification framework around it.

In Indiana, IURC keeps final statutory authority. In South Carolina, WIIC can issue voluntary readiness certification.

Each of those groups already does its own job well. What's missing is one common, trusted record connecting their separate efforts. TORBU provides that record. WIIC's certification relies on it.

WIIC only works if three things move together: technical credibility, institutional coordination, and economic development. A regulator usually owns the first. An economic development office usually owns the third. Almost no one owns the second, getting those two groups to work from the same record. This walkthrough puts all three in one frame.

The record

Built once, used everywhere

A utility keeps its asset condition, workforce readiness, and finances in one governed file. That replaces a separate report for every audience.

The review

Consistent, attributable, auditable

Every review, sign-off, and determination carries a timestamp and a named authority behind it.

The signal

Trust that reaches beyond compliance

The same record that satisfies a regulator also tells a funder or economic development partner whether a utility is ready for capital.

Three pathways follow: a utility, a regulator, and a funder or stakeholder. Each sees the same record, from a different chair.
Three roles, one record

How this looks from each seat at the table

Pick a role. The utilities and numbers below are the prototypes' own demonstration data, for illustration only.

A utility keeps building the same record every cycle, in place of filing once and moving on. Below is the prototype's own example utility. It's shown the way its board would see it.

From Indiana's Board Member Portal
Indianapolis Water Co.
Governing-body view · current reporting cycle
In progress · under review
Assets inventoried
96% complete · 18 high-priority assets flagged
Workforce certified
88% of operators · financial attestation pending
Capital plan linkage
70% of assets linked to the capital plan
The board sees its own status and training obligations. The evidence file and the reviewer's queue stay with the utility manager and the regulator, one seat over.

The prototype builds its regulator view around one idea: a regulator's job is to answer five questions for every utility, every cycle.

From Indiana's Authority Model
1
Who had authority?Every action in the record ties to a named role.
2
What was done?The evidence itself: inspections, training completions, financial attestations.
3
Who reviewed and approved it?A named reviewer signs every determination.
4
Who is accountable for the outcome?The utility manager for what was submitted, the governing body for the fiduciary result.
5
Is there a complete trail?Yes, automatically, for every action.
42
Utilities in one statewide queue
1
Consistent record format for all of them
Instead of forty-two different conversations, a regulator works from one queue. That queue has the same shape for every utility. The first reporting cycle mostly establishes a baseline. A utility behind on training gets that gap recorded as a starting point. Requirements tighten in the cycle after that. Utilities get time to build capacity first.

South Carolina's prototype makes this explicit. WIIC can matter as a trusted readiness signal long before it becomes a regulator. Funders and economic development partners can use that signal on their own terms. This is the path most future states will follow, since few will have a mandate like Indiana's.

From South Carolina's Funding Readiness Registry
42
Utilities assessed
18
Certified
11
Funding-ready today
9
Flagged for assistance first
Tier
What it means
What happens next
Gold
What it meansReady for capital now
What happens nextPrioritize for project funding
Silver
What it meansReady with light support
What happens nextFund priority repairs alongside targeted assistance
Bronze
What it meansNeeds assistance first
What happens nextEnroll in workforce and technical assistance before funding
Development
What it meansJust getting started
What happens nextBegin building the baseline record
The certification gives a funder's judgment a governed record to stand on. That record shows who submitted evidence, who verified it, and what's still missing. Judgment moves faster from there.
Why this matters beyond compliance

Water readiness is already deciding where growth lands

Two real examples show capital projects meeting water uncertainty well before they meet a lack of money.

Capital increasingly follows infrastructure certainty. TORBU's governed record turns utility readiness into something lenders, site selectors, and economic development organizations can evaluate consistently.
$13B+ investment, $560M prerequisite
Eli Lilly's LEAP campus, one of the largest private investments in Indiana history, needed a $560 million water-supply program in place before construction could begin.
$2.6B project, stopped in one day
The local water district approved a $2.6B data center project 5-0, then halted it the same day over capacity concerns.
$6.4B
Lost yearly nationwide to water that never reaches a paying customer
30 to 50%
Of utility operators eligible to retire within a decade
Certification makes readiness legible. It helps funders, site selectors, and public officials sort systems into two groups: ready for investment, or needing assistance first. That distinction shortens the distance between "we'd like to invest here" and "we can."
In plain terms

What the law actually asks utilities to do, and what TORBU provides for each part

What the law requires
What TORBU provides
RequiresReport on the state of the utility's asset management every few years
TORBU providesA governed record that's already being kept well ahead of any deadline
RequiresCertify the utility has the technical, managerial, legal, and financial capability to run its own system
TORBU providesStructured evidence and sign-offs stand behind that certification
RequiresHave the utility's governing board or council complete required training
TORBU providesTraining completion tracked at the individual board-member level, rolled up to a quorum-level status
RequiresShow improvement over time, under the state's rules for the second cycle
TORBU providesA baseline captured early, so "improvement" is measured against a utility's own real starting point
All four requirements come from Indiana's HEA 1459 (2025). That law builds on an earlier one, SEA 272 (2022), which first tied asset management to state funding.
The first cycle is forgiving on purpose: it mostly checks whether a utility showed up and started building its record. The bar rises in the cycle after that. TORBU's job is simple. Make sure the record utilities build in year one is still useful when that bar rises.
Mapped to HEA 1459's real timeline

The legal clock keeps moving. The build has to keep pace.

Indiana's law runs on its own schedule regardless of WIIC. The build has to keep pace with it. Indiana is the proof case. Few other states have a law like it. South Carolina's voluntary model is the one built for growth elsewhere. Indiana's calendar still shows why timing matters, even without a legal mandate.

HEA 1459'S OWN CLOCK
2026
First reports come dueIndiana's staggered schedule begins. Utilities file on different dates through the 2026 to 2029 baseline cycle. Missing a filing date is the only deficiency in this first cycle.
2026 to 2029
Baseline cycleUtilities establish their record. Training and workforce gaps get documented as a starting point for improvement.
2030 to 2033
Requirements tightenThe second cycle requires system maps, asset inventories, and demonstrated improvement. The record from cycle one is what utilities lean on here.
HOW TORBU AND NEWFIRE BUILD ALONGSIDE IT
Today
Core architecture in placeRole-based review and governed records are already built into the platform's design.
Through 2029
Extend to full evidence and statewide oversightTORBU builds asset evidence, regulator dashboards, and the funding-readiness signal during the baseline cycle, ahead of when utilities need them.
2030 onward
Support the tightened requirements, expand beyond IndianaThe same build carries Indiana into its second cycle. It also supports other states moving at their own, voluntary pace.
2026 is already on the calendar. The build needs to be ahead of it, not catching up to it.
A utility's record for the 2030 requirements is easiest to build during the 2026 to 2029 baseline cycle, while the bar is still low. Starting the platform build now means that record is already in place when requirements tighten. Starting later means building it under deadline pressure instead.
Being direct about where things really stand

What's live, what's being built, and what's still a vision

Everything on the previous screens reflects real work already done. Full production status is a separate question, addressed row by row below.

Live today
Being built
Still a vision
LIVE TODAY
Indiana's lawEnacted and in effect: a real statute already in force.
BEING BUILT
The underlying TORBU platformArchitecture and code for role-based review and governed records are largely in place. Infrastructure to run it in production is offline, pending reactivation.
BEING BUILT
This walkthrough and the two prototypes it's drawn fromReal, working demonstrations, ahead of connection to a utility's live production data.
BEING BUILT
Statewide regulator dashboardsScoped and represented in the prototype. Production engineering is still ahead.
VISION
South Carolina's Funding Readiness RegistryA well-designed concept, still waiting on its first signed funder or regulator in South Carolina.
VISION
WIIC as the trusted signal for economic growth, nationallyThe long-term thesis. It depends on Indiana and South Carolina both proving out, and on other states following.
Raise any questions or concerns before the next planning conversation.
This walkthrough is deliberately abridged. For the full operating detail behind any of these screens, follow the links to the complete working prototypes below. All three require a password.
Full prototype: Indiana → Full prototype: South Carolina → Full prototype: BAMI-I →