Water essential for life, precious commodity, destructive force. All of these were factored into the winning entries for three of the Asset Management Excellence Awards: Digital Innovation, Risk Management and Project Achievement Digital innovation for reservoir health In 2019, 1,500 residents had to be led to safety after concrete slabs from the overflow spillway in Englands Toddbrook Reservoir became dislodged following several days of heavy rain. In its wake, new guidelines were drawn up that are changing the way reservoir safety is managed in the UK. As many water assets in the UK have been in existence for a long time (Toddbrook Reservoir was built between 1837 and 1840), the challenge Binnies and Rezatec sought to meet was how developing technology can help to manage historic assets, while complementing existing datasets, processes and activities. The iDMS creates a digital signature of the asset baseline to build up a clear picture of the dams normal behaviour Using satellite technology to proactively manage reservoir safety We developed the Intelligent Dam Monitoring System (iDMS), which combines Binnies 100 years of dam engineering expertise and digital ecosystems with Rezatecs geospatial artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, Matt Coombs, Head of Dam Engineering at Binnies, explains. It is a webbased remote monitoring system that uses satellite data alongside data science and analytics to create a complete digital signature of the asset baseline a dams unique basal rhythm of movement to build up a clear picture of normal dam behaviour. Managing dams has traditionally involved taking a survey measurement once or twice a year from a limited number of predefined points and building an understanding from that. However, dams are complex measurement at the millimetric level reveals each parts unique behaviour. Seasonal effects and water levels can exert a regular pattern of behaviour and, particularly for non-concrete dams, there may be a slow shift in movement over time. The iDMS can identify trends and anomalies at a millimetre accuracy across the whole dam structure, thereby enabling a better-informed analysis of risk across a structure and helping owners to avoid potentially catastrophic incidents through long-term planning and proactive risk management. It provides accurate and continuous remote monitoring of dams, enabling asset owners to have better insight into the dams health. A simple red/amber system alerts owners months or even years before a significant issue arises. The data can be used to prioritise future investment and enable focused operational activity to improve reservoir safety. Technology should enhance our knowledge, provide new capabilities, reduce our risks, and provide confidence and comfort to us as operators of major infrastructure, whose importance in maintaining water quality and daily life is absolutely essential, Chris Steele, Head of Digital Products and Services at Binnies, says. The iDMS brings a new science to monitoring reservoir health, and we are delighted that it has won the Asset Management Excellence Award for Digital Innovation. Dam data monitoring Monitoring is completely remote and needs no instrumentation at the dam. It requires no site visits, hardware, intervention, or support from the client. The iDMS uses the European Sentinel satellites, which operate in pairs, and data updates every five to six days. This satellite technology is combined with Geospatial AI (GeoAI). It applies technologies such as machine learning and data mining to extract meaningful information from geospatial data. Rezatec has developed and automated the models, which can be run and provide intelligence that has not previously been available to the dam engineers in Binnies, who analyse the data and provide technical advice to clients accordingly. Risk management in Nevada For more than 30 years, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has effectively managed Southern Nevadas diverse water portfolio. Comprised of seven local water and waste water agencies, the SNWA is responsible for water treatment and delivery, acquiring and managing long-term water resources, and implementing regional water conservation initiatives. As part of its long-range water resource plan, the SNWA plans to build the Horizon Lateral, a new water conveyance system that will strengthen system redundancy and service reliability in the city of Henderson and the southern portion of the Las Vegas Valley. Peter Jauch, SNWA Director of Engineering, says: This is a major undertaking for the authority and requires installing major new facilities across urban areas. Using a risk-based process was a must-have for this project. In September 2019, SNWA commissioned engineering firm Black & Veatch to undertake a Horizon Lateral feasibility study to solicit input from multiple agencies. Five workshop sessions covering framework, feasibility, coarse screening, fine screening and route refinement were used as the basis for collaboration between SNWA, key stakeholders, and the consultant team. Six categories of investment planning criteria were developed as part of the participatory sessions: community, environmental, operation, right of way, constructability, and financial. Adriana Ventimiglia, SNWA Project Manager, says: The workshops and risk-based approach were highly effective. It was the perfect process for our stakeholders to narrow down so many complicated choices into a fully supported project. The combination of the risk-based decision-making approach and risk model enabled us to ensure that a repeatable, auditable and robust process was established Workshop participants selected two corridors for constructing the Horizon Lateral and its associated facilities. The north corridor is located in a densely populated area, so pipeline routes that minimised impacts on residents and commerce as well as identified viable hydraulic configurations were the major focus of the analysis. For the south corridor, the main consideration was protecting the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, a nearly 50,000-acre site managed by the US government. Each session included extensive route reviews, use of the riskbased decision model and debate on route choices. The combination of the risk-based decision-making approach and risk model enabled us to ensure that a repeatable, auditable and robust process was established that led to defendable decisions, says James Curbeam, SNWAs Director of Risk Management. We intend to continue with the use of a risk-based approach as the project moves into the design phase, utilising the risk model and detailed risk registers that are aligned to our overall enterprise risk management approach. We are proud to have our work recognised through the Asset Management Excellence Award for Risk Management. Horizon Lateral Consisting of pipelines, pumping stations, storage and regulating facilities, the Horizon Lateral will improve flexibility of the areas water delivery system. It will also work in tandem with current infrastructure to protect water service for nearly one million existing residents and hundreds of businesses and community facilities in case of system outages or emergencies, while accommodating future water needs. Leakage strategies (project management) in the UK With increasing environmental pressure, including rising temperatures, increased water scarcity and mindfulness around waste-reducing value chains, the UK Water Services Regulator (OFWAT) requires the UK water sector to reduce leakage levels by an average of 16 per cent by 2025. Many companies have gone further, committing to a 50 per cent reduction in leakage by 2050 and have devised complex capital investment programmes to be delivered during the current regulatory period (AMP7). However, investment and intervention are often considered in business silos, giving little visibility of interdependencies or oversubscription of potential benefits. When considering the business case for potential technologies or future strategies, it is crucial to understand how these activities interact within the current strategy, operations and infrastructure. The optimal way to sustainable and achievable leakage reduction is to consider the complex interactions between financial constraints, operational limitations and innovations within the context of the regulatory requirements. The approach requires the right balance of traditional operational approaches, such as active leakage control (ALC), as well as capital investments combined with new innovations or interventions, while considering the local conditions and circumstances. Business Modelling Associates (BMA) has developed a data-driven, holistic solution to analyse, visualise and optimise end-to-end leakage management processes and support sustainable improvement in leakage performance for Severn Trent Water (STW). The Leakage Intelligence Decision Support (LIDS) platform enables leakage management and planning that provides a key link between operational management, long-term capital investment and innovations. It encompasses ALC performance management, recognised capital investments that are known to reduce leakage, and the evaluation of more innovative solutions. LIDS looks at how operational activities and capital schemes contribute to leakage reduction, ensuring compatible blends of activity and highlighting risks of double counting LIDS provides a baseline from which a broad range of scenarios can be run and sensitivities around performance of the options available to our customers can be tested, explains Sam Oosthuizen, Head of Water and Resilience Solutions at BMA. For STW, the model initially showed that the current plan was using a mix of activity that would not be able to achieve the leakage target in years 4 and 5 of AMP7. Missing the regulatory target would have resulted in a leakage penalty of more than 9m. LIDS looks at how operational activities and capital schemes contribute to leakage reduction, ensuring compatible blends of activity and highlighting risks of double counting. For each what if scenario run, the model gives insights around the required level of resourcing and efficiency for ALC teams within each geographical area that is required to meet the AMP7 leakage target. Using the LIDS solution, STW has been able to reoptimise and plan its future workload, steering asset management plans and programme delivery in the process. By forecasting leakage performance, and associated resource levels and efficiencies, LIDS helps avoid expensive reactive measures to recover leakage, says Paul Taylor, Leakage Assurance Manager at STW. We have benefited a lot from BMAs development of LIDS, and we are delighted that it has won the Asset Management Excellence Award for Project Achievement. The holistic LIDS approach improves STWs strategic assurance in decision-making, leading to an improvement in asset management maturity as assessed by the regulator. Looking to the future, from a leakage perspective, the rapid scenario and adaptive planning capability will be used to inform the build of a robust and assured business plan and price review for 2025 to 2030 (PR24) aligned to the requirements of the economic regulator, OFWAT. Intervention impacts Intervention impacts can be specified at the level of: components of leakage (background, trunk, natural rate of rise for both detected and customer-reported leaks) leak life (prevention, awareness, locate, mend) operational metrics (leak type, number of leaks, person hours per repair) network geocoded cohorts (metallic and non-metallic materials).
