The WEF Sustainable Utilities Task Force presents a resource for utility managers seeking examples of succesful sustainability practices

Improving Utility O&M and Capital Decisions by Incorporating the Concepts of Asset Condition, Criticality and Risk

Toho Water Authority
Kissimmee, Florida

Toho Water Authority (TWA) provides water, wastewater and reclaimed water service to
approximately 85,000 customers in Kissimmee Florida. For the past three years the Utility has
been implementing an asset management program for their over $700 million dollars worth of
water, wastewater, and reclaimed water assets. During this program TWA has made significant
investments in asset management information systems including INFOR EAM Computer
Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and an ESRI Geographic Information System (GIS)
database. These two systems now contain the comprehensive asset inventory for the utility. A
built-in interface between the programs allows the CMMS and GIS to integrate and share
information.
Once the software implementation and inventory was complete, TWA wanted to obtain
additional physical, financial, and asset management attributes for their assets to support the
overall asset management program, which includes evaluating asset risk, measuring utility
performance and effectively planning for future renewal and replacement needs. The CMMS
software was configured to store the attribute data in January of 2008 after conducting interactive
workshops with staff to define the attributes. In August of 2008 a pilot project was implemented
to define the process to consistently collect and calculate the asset data including condition,
consequence of failure, risk, and replacement cost for all vertical assets in the utility. The pilot
area contained one water plant, one wastewater plant and 47 lift stations that fed the wastewater
plant. This paper will describe the methodology that was established to obtain and calculate the
data, the results of the data analysis, and uses for the data to further their asset management
program and overall decision making.


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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 50k-100k, Sanitary Sewer, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment, Water Treatment | Tags: , , | No Comments »

Centrifuge Upgrade – Hydraulic or VFD?

Pinellas County Utilities South Cross Bayou Water Reclamation Facility
St. Petersburg, Florida

The dewatering and thickening centrifuges located at the South Cross Bayou Water Reclamation Facility (SCBWRF) have been inefficient for many years. The critical source of problems is the DC drive associated with the units. During any type of incoming power problem such as a “power blink” the machines require an entire shut down and restart. This not only costs production time but it is also difficult to adequately clean the machine during the shut down. The focus of this paper is to describe the steps taken by Pinellas County to review its options in the pursuit of having machines that are more efficient to maintain and operate. The goals of this presentation are to demonstrate the steps that PCU chose to retrofit the existing system and improve production, efficiency, operation and maintenance of the plant in general. The main source of payback for the project was realized in the reduced operation and maintenance required for the machines. The total combined PLC related repair costs over a two year period prior to the centrifuge upgrade averaged to nearly $85,000 between three technicians. The reduction in Operations labor due to PLC failures over the period of one year was approximately $55,000. The technicians were spending nearly 4 hours per 24 hour shift resolving PLC issues with the controllers. The largest savings was the ability to remove an operator from all three shifts, resulting in a savings of over $235,000 per year. This move allowed the Operations to move Operators back into the plant to fill needed positions. The overall savings of $375,000 will realize a 2.7 year return on investment based on the final cost of $1,012,043.51 which includes all change orders due to equipment condition repairs that were needed prior to the hydraulic upgrade. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings


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Posted: August 27th, 2010 | Filed under: Waste Water Treatment | Tags: , , , | No Comments »