As water and wastewater treatment plant (WTP/WWTP) processes and control systems become more sophisticated, maximizing operator effectiveness becomes more complex as well. A well-planned alarm and control strategy can make a significant difference between valuable decision-making information and confusing, disjointed, data points. This article highlights key strategies for foreseeing problems in advance, fixing them faster, and having a higher success rate by maximizing operator effectiveness.
In water plant operations, there’s no such thing as simply maintaining the status quo. Any utility that is not moving forward is falling behind. Whether a water treatment or wastewater treatment plant (WTP/WWTP) chooses to rely on in-house resources or outside specialists, here are some lifecycle management approaches they can use to upgrade control capabilities without compromising performance or return on investment.
A Q&A with Berkeley Lab hydrological science expert Bhavna Arora, who explains how unseasonably warm weather and drought can affect water quality
While the laws of physics and chemistry have not changed, the ways that water and wastewater treatment plants (WTPs/WWTPs) are being forced to deal with them certainly have — e.g., disinfection byproducts (DBPs), tighter turbidity standards, harmful algal blooms, and PFAS challenges. Even when plant throughput stays the same, the demands on plant personnel continue to increase. Here’s how evolving toward better workforce management processes can help.
The history of commercial online transactions is riddled with horror stories about data security breaches. Think Equifax, Target, Yahoo, Uber, Sony PlayStation … the list goes on. How can a utility maximize the benefits advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) offers for more efficient data collection and management, without having to worry about seeing its name on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper?
By now, most of the utilities managing the 80 percent of U.S. water meters not yet capitalizing on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) have heard about the advantages offered by the 20 percent of utilities that are. Unfortunately, utilities large and small still cite a variety of reasons delaying their step up to AMI productivity — including smart meter installation costs, lack of in-house expertise, and capital budgets for IT support.
Choosing the right communication network is crucial to building a successful, smart utility. The quality of the communication technology selected determines whether the data will be transmitted efficiently, securely, and reliably over the long haul. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly.
Water utilities are installing automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems more frequently. These systems often help utilities improve customer relations and provide valuable real-time data to improve operations. The ability for various meters to communicate with AMR and AMI technology has become more important as these systems become commonplace.
Five years ago, the city of Detroit, MI, filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history at an estimated $18 to 20B. At the time, there was a lot of speculation in the water market as to how the city would continue to serve its citizens with viable water and sanitary sewer services. Ultimately Detroit reached a deal with neighboring Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties to create the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), a new regional water and sewer authority. Spring forward to today and despite Detroit’s population continuing to dwindle, it’s water and sewer provision under the GLWA has recovered significantly.
Can you imagine calling the electric company to demand a rebate because you had just received your bill and realized that over the past month, you inadvertently left all your lights on? As ludicrous as this scenario seems, it’s exactly the type of call water utilities receive from their customers.
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