Wells’ asset management
This practice involves the use of a software tool developed to manage wells and pumps. The tool provides data on well and pump performance on a daily basis, including the production cost per cubic meter in each well. The tool helps in raising energy efficiency and reducing fuel consumption, by monitoring productivity of each well and re-arranging pumps according to their pumping capacity and their diesel consumption. The data also facilitate proactive and reactive maintenance of equipment and serve as inputs for other databases such as the control dashboard, GIS, and procurement management.
Description of the problem
Lack of reliable and real-time data on pump and well performance is a significant problem for many water utilities. Sana’a LC had a manual reporting system where technical staff collected data and prepared written reports. Data that were collected include: depth and location of wells, well productivity, details of the electromechanical components (pumps, engines, generators, and valves), fuel and electricity consumption and pumping hours. Time and efforts were needed to manage these data from each well and turn them into reports. Manual data entry and reporting at times contributed to inaccurate technical reports and made it difficult or impossible to access historic data. Hence the utility struggled with the necessary information for decision making in relation to their wells and pumps and the volume of water that was pumped into the network. This is a risky situation as the electro-mechanical components in wells and pumping stations are major energy consumers and O&M cost may increase considerably if these components are not well managed. The manual approach did not facilitate increasing the efficiency of well and pump production nor helped to reduce energy cost or to carry out effective maintenance policy.
Description of the good practice
The utility decided to change manual reporting to electronic registration and processing of information related to the performance of wells and electro mechanical equipment. They obtained the necessary equipment and one of the engineers of the company (Eng Nuha Nashir) developed Oracle-based software for data processing also using GIS. The proper access authorities were distributed among the departments in the utility. Staffs were trained to use the equipment and review the different reports that are available to facilitate their daily work and to make management decisions.
The development process also included the fundamental step of making an inventory of the utility’s assets related to wells and their technical and electromechanical components.
The information that is collected by staff is put into the data base and processed automatically according to the needs of different departments to be able to:
Monitor and analyse the performance of wells, pumps and motors and decide on routine maintenance including repair or replacement of pumps
Monitor water abstraction and production.
Develop a proactive periodic maintenance approach for the electromechanical components.
Impact and sustainability of the good practice
This practice is very useful and an essential management tool to monitor the utility water resources and the productivity of wells and electromechanical equipment. The approach and the software tool provide reliable data on the performance of wells and electromechanical equipment which is easy-to-access and analyse. The tool informs about per cubic meter production cost of each well, determining the profitable and less profitable wells and enabling the utility to establish cost centres within the network. Historic documents and geological profiles for each well can be accessed as well. The approach helps to organise the work of the technical department and link it with the activities of other departments among others through the near-real-time control dashboard (see section 5.1).
The practice makes a significant contribution to the management of the water utility in allowing the use of real-time data to take management decisions and establish pro-active maintenance and quick responses to possible performance problems. It enables the utility to increase energy efficiency and to reduce operation and maintenance cost. This is achieved by re-arranging the pumps in the different wells according to well productivity and pump capacity, so fuel consumption is reduced. It also allows monitoring repairs of pumps thus reducing the possibilities of poor repair by contractors or utility staff. This practice is sustainable as it reduces the cost of data collection and allows adequate performance monitoring, which in turn makes it feasible to take management decisions that increase the efficiency and overall performance of the utility.
Required resources
The practice requires in the first place a clear management decision to adopt data collection and electronic processing to have reliable data that is easily accessible. Expertise is needed to purchase or develop the necessary software. Equipment includes: computers, a server, and a network in the utility and its branches. Data loggers can also be used in the future to make it a fully real-time process. The software needs to ensure that it can connect with other software such as GIS and to facilitate that data can be projected on individual computers and on the main control panel. Another requirement is that staff should be trained adequately on data entry, report extraction, and data analysis.
