A Customer Problem – Asset Management
When someone talks about the capital infrastructure of a water or waste water utility or authority they are referring to things like the pipe networks, the lift stations, water mains and treatment plants a utility owns and is responsible for. These are usually very large and costly investments by any standard and that is why most times the owner of the assets must levy fees in the form of taxes when other government funds cannot be found.
Asset management is the term used to describe the management of this infrastructure in a way that minimizes total costs. These costs are made up of the cost of investment, operating costs, maintenance costs and the eventual cost of replacing the assets at the end of their life cycle.
Asset management for our customers is all about the analysis of information in order to make informed decisions about their capital investments. The better the information – the better the decision they can make. There is a big incentive to use that information on decisions that will minimize costs.
All utilities and authorities are limited in their spending to how much they collect in water and wastewater rates. Therefore a critical goal for the city is to manage their assets in such a way that they can achieve the level of service desired by customers AND meet the legal requirements of the regulators WITHOUT going over the amount of money they are allocated to spend each year.
So asset management is all about the analysis of information to make better decisions about investments. The more data you have and the more of that data you get in real time – the better you are able to manage your assets.
According to the Water Investment Newsletter the application of information technologies to the water industry is destined to become a high-growth opportunity. As if we did not know that!
Combining a modern SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system with the MultiSmart Pump Station Manager provides a sophisticated solution to asset management. This ensures not only continuous monitoring and control but a high level of predictive intelligence at the site where the assets are. Our enabling technology creates operational efficienies, and reduces maintenance and energy costs. This in turn helps the customer delay or reduces rate increases, helps bridge their funding gaps and optimizes their assets performance and reliability.
In the US much of the water infrastructure is approaching the end of its asset life cycle. This makes it a healthy candidate to get federal funding for capital renewal. We have already identified around $5billion in “shovel ready” projects that are eligible under the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Multitrode designs its products with the needs of the customer in mind. In fact one of our core values is that the customer is “Boss”. Our view is that the MultiSmart is the best solution to a customer looking for a better way to manage assets.
Some examples of how the MultiSmart delivers better Asset Management
Capital Costs: The MultiSmart is great value for money. It allows for lower cost panels. in many cases it can pay for itself in the first 12 months. The one unit replaces up to 14 other devices.
Maintenance Costs: The MultiSmart provides large amounts of data from the remote site back to a central site to be analysed. It also has on site predictive intelligence that can tell when a pump will need servicing.
Operating Costs: We know that any network where MultiSmarts are fitted will reduce after hours call outs by up to 80%. That reduces emergency response costs and “on call” costs. We also know that energy costs can be reduced by up to 15%.
Recycling: The MultiSmart has a 5 Year warranty. The case is made of recyclable plastics and the boards can be returned and disposed of in the appropriate way.
Recent Comments