The challenge and opportunity
The Essential Services Commission (ESC) regulates the Victorian water industry via price reviews, codes, guidelines and performance monitoring. After a review, the ESC reduced Wannon Water’s renewal budget due to a lack of granular detail, so the agency has had to operate with increasingly constrained resources. This constraint pressure is further enhanced by high labor costs and community pressure against rate increases.
Further, Wannon Water identified a need for asset management process improvement. There was a lack of consistency and no holistic approach to lifecycle modeling based on objective factors such as risk, cost or service levels. This was further complicated by the use of multiple software systems for the asset register, maintenance, asset management plans and other key data and documents.
The solution
Brightly (which later merged with Siemens Asset Management) was selected to provide Predictor for the creation of asset management plans to be driven by lifecycle assessment modeling, as well as to provide consultancy services to implement, embed and apply the system.
Through strong collaborative relationships with Brightly’s industry specialists (now a part of Siemens), the Wannon Water team was able to implement Predictor for all of its sewer network and water treatment plants in just three months.
The results
Wannon Water now has granular, data-driven 10-year renewal programs which will result in genuine savings, having selected the optimal outcomes based on scientific scenario modeling.
Further, the ability to include risk as a modeling parameter in Predictor means that all stakeholders, irrespective of background or asset management knowledge, are able to comprehend and consider scenarios in a meaningful way. This engagement enabled the project to proceed with increased visibility and efficiency.
“Our collaboration with Brightly [Siemens] has enabled us to unlock huge potential from our asset data, and ultimately justified the investment we have made in our data maturity for many years,” said Aaron Smith, Branch Manager of Asset Systems for Wannon Water.
He continues, “We could identify a significant ROI opportunity from the very first asset class that we analyzed using Brightly’s [Siemens’] tools and expertise — a great case of doing more with less.” That opportunity was the identification of a potential $3M (23%) savings over the ten-year Sewer Renewal Program.
Ultimately, Predictor enabled the team to advance from age-based renewal planning to condition- and criticality-based planning — and they’re just getting started.
Looking forward
In the future, the Wannon Water team expects to:
- Complete comprehensive risk analysis and reporting for executive and board stakeholders via further advancement of existing models
- Expand the modeling coverage to include more asset classes, starting with sewer treatment plants, pump stations and the water pipe network
- Develop a comprehensive asset data improvement action plan, using proprietary strategic asset management maturity assessment methodologies
- Further engage key stakeholders with boosted reporting power, embedding modeling outputs in Wannon Water’s corporate Power BI Dashboard by using the Predictor Power BI Template
“We are determined to upskill our staff and expand this functionality across our full asset portfolio with Brightly’s [Siemens’] support,” shared Smith. “This will enable us to better communicate our investment options with our executives, optimize our CapEx budget, and also submit a compelling and evidence-based submission to our regulator in a few years’ time.”