The need for informed decisions
Novafos is a water and wastewater company that handles rainwater and wastewater and supplies drinking water to a large part of the consumers in the 9 Zealand owner municipalities, Allerød, Ballerup, Egedal, Frederikssund, Furesø, Gentofte, Gladsaxe, Hørsholm, and Rudersdal.
In 2019, Novafos decided to implement Rehab-IT so that they could use the tool to create a basis for informed decision-making about investments in their water and wastewater work.
The first objective
In the wastewater sector, the focus was primarily on supporting the identification of high-risk pipelines for TV inspection and/or rehabilitation. Thus, the municipal officials of the 9 owner municipalities had a proposal for a TV and remediation plan for the next 20-30 years. An approach based on risk-based planning.
The implementation was well supported by Envidan, who helped with the project maturation of the decision-making basis for investing in TV inspections and remediation. On this basis, the decision-making has been evaluated and the municipalities have obtained concrete plans for TV inspection and remediation.
Unique models for each municipality
A total of 9 unique Rehab-IT models were built, one for each owner municipality. All models were installed with both mains and service lines.
The models all incorporate different information from multiple platforms:
- Treatment plant and sewage catchment areas.
- Customer inquiries from EnviDrift (split between inquiries regarding physical condition, hydraulic condition, emergency incidents, and planned operations).
- Results from Mike Urban
- Planned projects.
- Key economic indicators.
- Outflow and overflow data
- Information on extraneous water
Automatic interpretation should estimate
The risk of dysfunction
An essential part of the work was to develop automation of the previously manual workflows involved in interpreting TV inspections and deciding on remediation projects. Thus, an automatic interpretation of TV inspections has been developed into a Novafos index, which represents the probability of dysfunction of a line for physical reasons. Using machine learning and advanced statistics on historical TV inspections, a methodology has been developed to produce individual aging curves. This gives the best possible estimate of the probability of dysfunction of each pipeline – today and in the years to come. In combination with an individual determination of the consequence of dysfunction, a risk-based prioritization at the pipeline level is achieved based on the situation today – but also on what the risk picture will be in 5, 10, and 30 years, etc.
With the help of Rehab-IT, the consequences for service targets, operational economy, etc. are included in the planning of investments in renewal, renovation, and operation in a long-term plan (+10 years). In this way, data-driven asset management in Novafos is achieved.
Asset management to provide the basis for investment and maintenance
In parallel, and with a particular focus in 2021, work is ongoing on the implementation of data-driven asset management.
The goal is that by the end of 2021, Novafos will have an AM strategy that is translated into a long-term (+10 years) AM plan(s) for investments in the operation and maintenance of the utility’s drainage system. AM plan(s) that can be executed (Work Execution) and monitored in the following year(s).
Rehab-IT is used to prioritize activities in relation to the goals, as well as to continuously monitor the effect of the initiatives on the goals.
