Targeted Review of Asset Health and Resilience in the Water Industry. Dr Paul J Conroy

Transcription

1 Targeted Review of Asset Health and Resilience in the Water Industry Dr Paul J Conroy

2 Content Aim and approach Headlines Issues and themes Thoughts on where next 2

3 3 Asset health: does it matter?

4 Aim and approach To understand how well companies understand the risks associated with poor asset health; how they identify and measure those risks and what they are doing to mitigate them CH2M (now Jacobs) undertook structured interviews, based on a common set of questions, covering: Understanding Measurement Decision making Customer Assurance Innovation and barriers 4

5 Headlines 1. Asset health (AH) is seen as a facet of resilience, and important for good service, but is not specifically defined, therefore interpretation varies 2. System and operational resilience increasingly seen as a mechanism for achieving service outcomes 3. There is good evidence of risk based planning and development of tools that help understand the role of asset health, but also a focus on use of performance data (lag indicators) 4. High impact, low probability (HILP) of failure assets present specific challenges 5. Progress has been made, though further attention may be merited w.r.t. assurance, encouraging innovation, customer dialogue 5

6 Issue 1: assets are very diverse Distribution pipes (water infra) Long life, variety of materials and deterioration mechanisms, low impact/criticality, repairable, reactive management Trunk mains (water infra) Very long life, high impact on service, local damage potential Strategic sewers (wastewater infra) Very long life, complex deterioration mechanisms, local damage impact Water/wastewater treatment and pumping (non infra) Complex assets, redundancy and standby inherent, mix 6 of short, medium and long life assets

7 Reflected in diversity of approaches for managing asset health Expenditure planning Health measures Water pipes (dist) Bursts & leaks, water quality (WQ) events Water pipes (trunk) Bursts, leaks, WQ events Sewers Collapses Pumping stations Service interruptions/ impacts Treatment works Output quality Indicators Asset performance Asset condition, criticality Condition, infiltration MTTF (mean time to failure), asset performance Risk scores Service/risk forecasting Statistical models Trend analysis Hydraulic models Statistical analysis Physical condition survey Risk workshops Statistical models CCTV based condition assessment Risk assessment workshops hydraulic models Statistical analysis MTTF data Physical inspection Risk workshops Risk assessment Physical inspection FMECA (failure modes, effects & criticality analysis) Visualisation & targeting tools GIS (geospatial information system) GIS GIS Scorecards & dashboards Scorecards & dashboards Technology 1. WQ monitors 2. Flow, pressure monitors 3. Leak detection 7 1. Surge and transient analysis, 2. Pipe wall thickness, 3. Leak detection 1. CCTV 2. Level sensors 1. Vibration, 2. Acoustic monitoring, 3. Thermal analysis 1. Vibration, 2. Acoustic monitoring, 3. Thermal analysis

8 Issue 2: AH does not have a commonly accepted definition Variety of definitions Nuanced and potentially conflated concepts Makes for a challenging dialogue Part of the resilience landscape 8

9 Issue 3. How do we reconcile company views with Ofwat expectations? Overlaps with serviceability, service, performance, resilience: clarity of concept and a definition could be beneficial New proposed asset health indicators for PR19 9

10 Issue 4. Critical assets and bow waves Criticality and strategic assets e.g. some trunk mains (HILP events) Bow waves/cliff edges caused by net deterioration (as asset age, the ability to resist load (resistance - R) tends to decrease. As the resistance approaches the stress (S) under which the asset operates, the failure probability increases) 10

11 Issue 5. Incentives and barriers General view that the regulatory regime ought not to present barriers (Totex & Outcomes) Some negative assertions less sharing of knowledge Potential need for in AMP ROI Service focus could encourage operational expediencies for quick wins 11

12 A personal view on Asset health (1) Understanding & measurement Collectively there are differences of opinion on asset health and resilience. Diversity of opinion in sector as to what it really is and how best to measure it Lacks a crisp definition (e.g. asset condition and performance/resistance and reliability) AH is very important, and part of the resilience landscape We need to show Ofwat that we do understand the importance of AH; are aware of our critical assets and reduce concerns over unexpected high profile failures How it gets used in decision making Risk based process is good (CMPCF/EPF), though precise effect of asset health on risk possibly not so good for certain assets 12

13 A personal view on Asset health (2) Customer I did not see evidence of a really strong dialogue which used the term asset health directly I tend to agree with the argument that asset health (state of the asset) is of less interest to customers than service outcomes so it does not have a clear customer driven mandate Assurance Difficult to say exactly how effective the processes are as not able to do a deep dive Some concerns regarding assurance of new assets ISO certification should be encouraged 13

14 A personal view on Asset health (3) Innovation and barriers No real barriers to innovation I do not think that all UK water companies invest enough in innovation processes though some great processes in place (e.g. Shop Window) and seem to do as much as others in water sector Over the years inspection and monitoring have been key areas for research and trials but this did not come through so strongly from the survey! Big opportunities around analytics, smart systems, data mining but not clear that they are being actively pursued Limited evidence of cross-sector benchmarking UKWIR R&D of great value, but not the same scope and scale of the early WRc programmes; do we need to improve industry mechanism for testing and introducing innovative technologies? 14

15 Thank You