WET News

18 WET NEWS APRIL 2015 Pressure management has been at the heart of Hartlepool Water's network strategy for almost 30 years, but a heavy reliance on manual intervention kept operational costs high. The challenge: Intervention can be costly INSIGHT LEAKAGE MANAGEMENT Hartlepool Water wanted to be able to identify performance issues and schedule service requirements more e‡ ectively THE CONCEPT Automatic PRV Pressure Optimisation solution was trialled on four DMAs to monitor the impact of improved pressure control By feeding water pressure data from intelligent electronic loggers in the network into i2O's software, an optimal pressure pattern could be calculated automatically to deliver a stable target pressure By adjusting critical point pressure through a secure internet connection, critical point pressures could be stabilised and safely reduced NEED TO KNOW Reducing PRV outlet pressure manually triggered resulted in expenditure of around £5,000 of operational and administration costs T he technology has extended the lifetime of mains and service connections Before the trial, the four PRVs were operating with ' xed outlet pressures THE VERDICT Demand savings of 361m³/d have been achieved across the four DMAs. An annual cost saving of more than £10,500 across the four trial DMAs has been calculated. Leakage and burst frequency have been reduced. Service visits have been reduced from quarterly to annually. H artlepool Water, part of Anglian Water Services, supplies water to the town of Hartlepool and surrounding villages in the North-east. It serves a population of more than 92,000 people through 700km of mains pipe, and stores up to 48Ml of water to supply its network. Heavy reliance With 26 District Zones (DZs) and 22 District Metered Areas (DMAs), Hartlepool Water already had 16 ‡ xed outlet Pres- sure Reducing Valves (PRVs) that were fairly well optimised. However, a heavy reliance on manual intervention kept up the operational costs of maintain- ing this performance. On one occasion when Hartlepool Water previously reduced PRV outlet pressure manually, it triggered an increase in customer contacts. This resulted in expenditure of around £5,000 of operational and administration costs. Some PRV performance issues required a quarterly minor service schedule, for example, but these regular services were carried out in addition to frequent manual pressure setting adjustments by Hartlepool Water technicians. Whilst this kept service levels high, it also meant high operational overheads. Kevin Ensell, Hartlepool Water's water operations manager, explains: "We're a small but innovative company and are always looking for better, more e› cient ways of doing things and delivering an even better level of service." Intelligent solution Ensell continues: "We've tried basic systems around reducing night pressures in the past, but they've not been robust. We wanted to look at another approach with a more intelli- gent solution that could increase e› ciency across multiple areas of our business, such as opera- tional cost, customer service, repair, and maintenance." According to Ensell, Hartlepool Water was particularly interested in the bene‡ ts of remote control and selected i2O Water as the water pressure management specialist was already successfully working with the utility's parent company. Ensell says: "We knew they are the only company with a proven tested solution in this area." A solution: Data capture helps monitor PRVs An optimal pressure pattern can be calculated automatically to deliver a stable target pressure to drive out excess pressure. H artlepool Water trialled i2O's Automatic PRV Pressure Optimisation solution on four DMAs to monitor the impact of improved pressure control on the day-to- day operations of its network. Also, the company wanted to evaluate the impact of the technology on customer service, operational costs and maintenance scheduling. "In short, we wanted to see how i2O's solutions could reduce the frequency of operational visits to adjust outlet pressure in the PRVs, and also reduce the number of customer contacts," explains Catherine Carlon, operations support manager for Hartlepool Water. i2O's solution also provided the added bene‡ t of capturing data to monitor the condition of the PRV. Outlet pressure This was of speci‡ c interest to Hartlepool Water, as it would enable it to identify perfor- mance issues and schedule ser- vice requirements more eŸ ectively. Prior to the i2O installation, the four PRVs were operating with ‡ xed outlet pressures, with Hartlepool Water recording a variation of critical point pressure of 2m at Burns Road and 4m at Tees Road. By feeding water pressure data from intelligent electronic loggers in the network into i2O's so¢ ware, Hartlepool Water was able to automatically calculate and implement an optimal pressure pattern to deliver a stable target pressure to customers and drive out excess pressure from managed zones. Standard By optimising water pressure continuously and automatically in line with agreed customer service levels, and adjusting critical point pressure at the click of a button through a secure internet connection, Hartlepool Water could stabilise and safely reduce target critical point pressures to within 2m of the minimum required standard. This has successfully reduced leakage, burst frequency and the associated operational costs of repairs and leakage control. It has also extended the lifetime of mains and service connections. Between December 2012 and February 2013, the system reduced critical point pressure from 18m to 16m at the Burn Road DMA, one of Hartlepool Water's four pilot sites. This helped reduce the daily in¦ ow into the DMA by 191m³/d or 8% of the total in¦ ow. At the Tees Road site, the variation in critical point pressure was decreased from 4m to just 0.5m, helping reduce the daily in¦ ow into the DMA by 127m³/d or 10.5% of the total in¦ ow. Customer Service By using the PRV condition monitoring data provided by the i2O system, Hartlepool Water has been able to move away from a reliance on fre- quent service visits, which have now been cut from quarterly to annually without impacting customer service or reliability. The company has seen demand savings of 361m³/d across the four DMAs. Based on a marginal water cost of around 8p/m³, this reduction in daily demand equates to an annual cost saving in excess of £10,500 across the four trial DMAs. "We wanted to see how i2O's solutions could reduce the frequency of operational visits to adjust outlet pressure in the PRVs, and also reduce the number of customer contacts" Catherine Carlon

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