CU Sep-Oct 2023

SOFTWAREfocus
planning efforts (such as engineering,
operations and management, IT and GIS,
finance, and executive management). The
software can easily be used to calculate the
likelihood and consequence of failures and
assess them together by creating and
comparing different risk scenarios,
combining risk with asset performance to
drive high-quality decisions.
WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE UK
I was initially concerned that the scenario
presented by Lucas in a Bentley podcast
was not directly scaleable for the UK, which
is divided into a number of different water
utilities, each of which covers much larger
geographic areas with greater populations.
Having spoken to Wayne Arscott, Head of
Leakage at Wessex Water, however, the
same issues are being handled here, as
they have been working with Wessex Water
for the past 25 years, albeit with a more
traditional network of hydraulic features
rather than the digital twin environment in
Joinville, Brazil.
Wessex Water operates between 3,500 to
4,000 water meters in discrete meter areas -
roughly covering 800 houses or the
equivalent industrial units, each logging
data on water flows, demand, and
leakages. The meters send back readings
every 30 minutes or so. Wayne explained
that most of the UK operates in a similar
fashion. Balance readings are taken when
there is the least demand on their network -
usually 2.00 to 3.00 AM - although that has
changed a bit during the drought as people
have run sprinklers and domestic
equipment overnight according to their
personal requirements.
The data that they extract is compared with
similar models created over the years and
held in calibrated models to differentiate
when climatic conditions and water
resources differ from normal or expected
weather, susceptible to being modified
following the results of the current drought.
The current strategy, which is largely
manual, is aimed at highlighting areas
where leakages and equipment failures
appear to be happening and to assign work
teams to attend to them.
Risk Prioritisation OpenFlows, which can
either be used as an analytical tool by itself
or together with WaterSight's complete
water management solution, looks at the
factors involved in its distribution. Two
prime issues in water supply management
are the likelihood of failure (LOF) provided
by data on the network's component
materials, age and estimated break rate,
and the types of seals in the network, and
the consequences of failure (COF), which
looks at who will be affected at any point or
area in the network, or the proximity of a
leak, say, adjacent to a highway.
Both the LOF and the COF are then
combined to create risk scenarios, which
are then assessed alongside asset
performance data - looking at historical,
current and predicted performance levels,
providing the authorities with the data they
need to develop viable action plans. The
scenarios can be presented as simulations
to look at what-if situations, perhaps
allowing operators to look at the effects of
closing down a section of the network in the
event of a major leakage.
The information is presented in a common
and customisable dashboard, so that
managers, operators and engineers have
real-time access to the information at any
time in any location. They can view the
performance of every embedded piece of
equipment in the hydraulic model, endowed
with dedicated boundary conditions and
performance templates that enable them to
simulate and record water flow data.
Sensors attached to components within the
network provide the digital twin aspect of
the software, enhanced further by the
integration of a 3D model for added context.
OPERATIONAL RESPONSES
There is no mystery about its operation,
which I have found to be common in both
Brazil and the UK. If you can simulate a pipe
break, you can identify which valves and
which customers will be affected rather
more easily by utilising the GIS data and
digital twin features in Brazil than the more
vulnerable systems used in most of the UK
authorities. If valves are set to inoperable or
a pump station is shut down, you can
identify further which areas will be affected,
or how the storage system and water flow
will be affected.
Like the UK, however, pinpointing leakages
depends on anomaly detection and the
comparison of flow rates against expected
minimal flow rates, supplemented by boots
on the ground. Each zone, even in Brazil, is
comprised of hundreds of dwellings and
water customers.
The data that would trigger a response is
displayed in OpenFlows WaterSight in a
subwindow under a number of categories:
Meter Failure, Burst, Leak, Flow Increase,
Work Order and Zone Charge. To continue
monitoring the network, any recorded
anomalies are automatically excluded from
the network pattern calculations.
The availability of data from any number of
sources allows operators to attach a cost of
subsequent remedial work. It also
contributes to a water audit, which
calculates and displays the percentage of
authorised and billed consumption,
unbilled consumption, and apparent or real
water losses.
IMPROVING EFFICIENCIES
Evaluating technical data for each pump
allows them to be compared against their
expectations or whether they have
degraded more rapidly than expected and
subsequently replaced, enhancing the
efficiency of each zone. All of the data is
available, together with KPIs using
dashboards powered by embedded Power
BI. Users are not limited to what WaterSight
can display and can create reports to suit
their own needs.
RISK ASSESSMENTS
Bentley's OpenFlows WaterSight is used
to make risk assessments and identify
assets due for replacement, calculate the
likelihood of failure, and ultimately make
decisions based on the data and the
costs of remediation. It is a cloud-based
system, accessible from any location and
on any device, and is guaranteed to
improve the efficiency of hydraulic models
of any size, supplemented by data from a
multitude of sources.
Its relevance to the abnormal droughts we
are currently experiencing cannot be
overestimated, either by factoring in the
elements that enable more efficient water
management, or by prompting further
expansion and monitoring of original water
supplies. A couple of extra water reservoirs
wouldn't go amiss in the UK either!
www.bentley.com
September/October 2022 11