solutions

by Mike Carter Utilities everywhere struggle with aging infra- structure. Here’s the big question to consider: do you know where you stand? Do you understand the countless critical assets within your system – their remaining life and cost of replacement/renewal? How imminent is a critical failure? Could you actually be in better shape than you think?

Strategic asset management (AM) helps track your asset lifecycles, identifies assets that in- crease your risks, and forecasts when they will need repair, rehabilitation, or replacement so you can plan financially for it today. Essentially, it’s about knowing a few criticalpieces of information:

Understanding your assets –

especially those critical to your operations – and knowing

where they are in their lifecycle as well as their Business Risk Exposure values, helps utilities manage operations more effectively.

10 Issue 2, 2012 www.ema-inc.com

City of TulsaWater and Sewer DepartmentThe City of Tulsa Water and Sewer Department (Tulsa) has two water treatment plants that provide 90 to 190 million gallons of drinking water a day. Tulsa supplies drinking water to more than 133,500 metered accounts in the City and more than 500,000 people in the metropolitan area. Tulsa also can treat 103 million gallons per day of wastewater. Thereare 1,960 miles of underground trunk and collection system sewer lines in Tulsa and 62 life stations that move the water to four major treatment plants: Northside, Southside, Haikey Creek, and Lower Bird Creek.

After participating in the Water EnvironmentResearch Foundation (WERF) Strategic Asset Management Communication and Implementation research program, Tulsa decided to advance its application of strategic asset management principles to drive down the lifecycle cost of equipment assets.

ChallengeTulsa faced the aging of its infrastructure assets. Many were nearing end of life or had

solutionswell exceeded their expected lifecycle. The utility identified a need to develop a capital budget that prioritizes timely equipment replacement of utility assets.

“We knew that we faced extensive needs primarily at the wastewater treatment plant,” said Clayton Edwards, Director at Tulsa. “And given our limited funds, we had to prioritize those needs.”

SolutionTulsa partnered with EMA to develop a strategic AM plan for equipment assets at their facilities. The plan implements tools thatintegrate strategic AM principles and provides staff training to better prepare the organization for a formal AM plan.

The project is a phased effort across three divisions: wastewater plants, water treatment plants, and Sewer Operation and Maintenance. Key aspects of the project include:

• Identifying critical assets/creating an asset registry

• Conducting performance assessments onidentified assets

• Creating a process to estimate asset life and replacement cost

• Establishing criteria to rank asset criticality• Developing an asset replacement plan

This project takes a focused look at each asset to determine the likelihood of its failure based on condition and performance and the con- sequence of its failure to public and employee safety, potential environmental damage, and other impacts. The product of likelihood of failure is used to develop a Business Risk Exposure (BRE) value to prioritize which assets need more attention.

ResultsThis project is providing Tulsa with data that is:

• Current. Data is exported from the various work management systems they use.

• Quantified. The growing need for renewaland replacement of core assets will be

based on asset identification, condition ranking, and business risk of failure.

• Aligned with best practices. Ongoing AMpractices will be aligned with water industry best practices to assure the AM program will continue to support their asset decision making process into the future.

• Accessible for Reporting. Utility man-agement and leadership will have the tools to clearly report asset information to their Board; this information includes the condition of all assets, as well as detailed financial information for the entire system down to individual asset replacement costs.

Through project participation, members ofTulsa’s Asset Management Team developeda thorough understanding of many important elements of strategic AM, including level of service, criticality, business risk and probability, and consequence of failure.

Applying newly acquired knowledge of AM principles enables Tulsa to develop a mean- ingful AM plan for equipment replacement as they move forward.

Finally, Tulsa gained the ability to produce ob- jective information to improve organizational effectiveness. Their progressive AM efforts help utility leadership communicate their needsand objectively prioritize near- and long-term capital projects that relate to critical assets in their infrastructure.

“One of the biggest benefits ... is how this has helped during the budget process,” Edwards said. “I go into these meetings with this big notebook showing what we’ve done. It has given us more credibilitywith our utility Authority and City Council – recognizing we’ve done this thorough evaluation, prioritized need, and evaluated the equipment. We’ve beenvery successful because we’re getting the money for the capital equipment.”

For more information on this project or to discuss your utility needs, contact Mike Carter at mcarter@ema-inc.com.

“One of the biggest benefits... is how this has helped duringthe budget process. It has given us more credibility with our utility Authority and City Council.”

Clayton Edwards, Director, City of Tulsa

Water and Sewer Department

The project at Tulsa helped the utility identify its critical assets, better under- stand the condition of these assets, and develop an asset replacement plan.

www.ema-inc.com Issue 2, 2012

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