Improving Water Operational Resilience Without Increasing Costs

Earlier this year, David Black, the Senior Director at Ofwat, presented at the Water Industry Asset Management Conference. Part of his presentation highlighted the importance of “better understanding of the costs of buying in requirements from third parties.”

In his report David Black said: “Operational resilience. This is partly about networks, and the assets that water companies own and control. This is at the centre of running a water and wastewater business. But we don’t take it for granted and we are conducting a targeted review of asset health right now. Operational resilience is also more broadly about the wider physical stuff on which the supply of water and waste water services depends. Which includes ecosystems, as well as traditional water company owned and controlled assets.”

Improving Water Operational Resilience Without Increasing Costs

One area of operational resilience IDS is aiding Water Companies with is the service and maintenance of their inverter assets through Service Agreements. We are aware some Water Companies don’t fully appreciate the substantial, potential cost savings servicing and maintaining their inverters represent. Perhaps perceiving a service agreement as an additional cost. We want to dispel this myth, here is a case in point:

ACQ810 132kW drive fitted at water site, through life costs analysis

The drive was not subject to a service agreement. Instead a ‘fit and forget’ approach was adopted. An expense comparison is shown below detailing the expenses incurred to date vs expense that would have been incurred if the drive was subject to a preventive maintenance service agreement.

Drive repairs from Jan 2012 to Jan 2015 were higher than an annual service agreement. Late in 2015 the drive suffered a catastrophic failure beyond economical repair due to being poorly maintained. A hire drive was quickly fitted to maintain operations until a permanent replacement drive could be installed.

The 5-year cost difference between ‘fit and forget’ vs preventive maintenance was £22,303.20

The cost difference does not include liabilities the water business incurred due to halted operations.

IDS Service Agreements

An example of an ABB recommended service schedule can be viewed here. In most cases, a service agreement becomes uneconomical at Year 19! To find out more about a service agreement for your inverters please call our dedicated team on 0115 944 1036 or email [email protected]