How mapping assets is the vital first step for utilities seeking to save energy, costs and time
Sector: Water Utilities
Challenge: Maximising Asset Life
With an inherited legacy of complex infrastructure in constant need of maintenance and repair, assets from pipework to plant can be a major pain point for utilities.
Asset managers have limited resources to deal with growing service needs as well as answering the demand for greater operational resilience to maintain uptime. Covid, along with increased regulatory pressures and rising operating costs, has compounded this, demanding worker safety be prioritised and making remote working the norm.
Identifying assets and evaluating their condition is a vital step to help asset managers improve reliability, prevent risks and failures, and optimise equipment efficiency.
Working with a trusted supplier to map assets and assess their lifespan can be extremely valuable to help determine potential maintenance needs. After taking inventory of their location, understanding the status of these assets when operating can allow utilities to pinpoint problems before they happen, avoiding costly downtime.
Plotting what lies beneath our feet
Pipeline assessment technology like Xylem’s acoustic SmartBall offers the ability to map vast networks and detect gas pockets and leaks via surface-mounted sensors. This free-swimming tool operates while the pipe is in use, meaning no disruption to customers.
Similarly, Xylem’s PipeDiver uses electromagnetic technology to discover broken wire wraps in pressurised water and wastewater pipelines. This means water utilities can identify pipeline failures before they happen and launch targeted repairs according to the PipeDiver’s underground map.
Using predictive insights to forecast potential failures
Xylem’s Smart Asset Management Performance & Reliability Optimisation (SAM PRO) delivers a 24/7 service that enables clients to optimise the performance and reliability of existing assets like pumps, blowers and mixers, and to prioritise their maintenance workflows.
SAM PRO is a unique system that can be retrofitted to any existing asset regardless of make, model or age, to fully optimise the total cost of ownership over the machine’s lifetime. Its predictive insights enable managers operating multiple assets and maintenance workflows to move from a scheduled to a predictive maintenance strategy, cutting life-cycle costs by forecasting potential system failures, outcomes and mapping risk.
Meet the next generation of UV lamps
Ensuring the UV system design delivers the precise dose required for specific disinfection requirements can reduce energy and chemical use, achieving cost savings, and reduce environmental impact. The latest UV lamps are more efficient, longer lasting and more sustainable than ever before.
Lamps can be operated in dim mode to deliver the exact UV output required to meet the needs of various operating conditions. Systems can also self-clean without chemicals, to significantly reduce the formation of deposits and eliminate the need for regular manual cleaning.
Time for an audit of wastewater treatment?
Xylem can offer treatment plant audits for an overview of the status of assets within any operation. Cloud-based data management, like Xylem Digital Maintenance (XDM), can help both supplier and utility maximise asset life by building knowledge of performance to understand when service is needed. XDM can help water companies map and better understand assets to manage work processes, maintenance and malfunctions more efficiently. This asset management tool has a range of options to ensure a full overview of data for analysis and interpretation, including equipment data, performed and planned maintenance, and relationships between assets.
In addition, service and rental engineers can help accurately locate and track assets in a particular pumping station utilising Xylem’s internal ServiceMax software, which can interact with customers’ systems to allow customers to access the asset data.
Prioritising action before it’s too late
Mapping assets then identifying their maintenance needs is the two-stage solution to maximising the lifespan of every asset. Assets that are not performing at their best efficiency point consume more energy, require more maintenance, and are less efficient.
The insights provided by exploiting the available data can illustrate the specific type of potential damage or failure – simplifying priorities for action regarding risk, condition and maintenance.
Xylem’s ability to work across all parts of the water cycle can offer insights which can be applied throughout every process, saving energy, costs and employees’ time. Historically, the industry has operated with a risk-averse approach, demanding financial prudence, but utilities do not need to overhaul installations in order to gain the benefits of these understandings: solutions like SAM PRO can work with existing systems and infrastructure.