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Challenges
The Utilities industry is no stranger to constant change, whether due to emerging technologies, stakeholder expectations, sustainability, regulations, or customer demands. In recent years, however, the pace of change has intensified as technologies are evolving faster than ever before and climate change is increasing strain on infrastructure.
The prominent emerging challenges that utilities must tackle are:
ASSET REGISTER
(GIS)
Inappropriate and Inaccurate Infrastructure Asset Register (GIS)
- Inaccurate depiction of network (connectivity)
- Missing / unknown assets from register
- Missing / unknown asset attributes
- In appropriate Data Structure necessitating duplication for different functions
- Reconciling the Technical with the Financial Asset Register
AGEING INFRASTRUCTURE
Ageing Infrastructure
- Increased Risk of Failure
- Frequent Asset failures and service disruption
- Limited Funds
- Increased Asset Cost as a result of lack of proper Asset Maintenance/ Management
LOW
PRODUCTIVITY
Low Productivity
Inefficient Processes, Systems and tools resulting in High % Downtime and excessive use of manpower for various processes as described below:
- Field Validation, maintenance and condition assessment of assets
- Data Capture & Structuring
- Leakage Detection
- Data Analysis (e.g. OPEX Costing, Rehabilitation Costing, Loss Analysis)
- Management Reporting, resulting in a lot of data analytics
COMMERCIAL
LOSSES
Commercial Losses resulting in Lost Revenue
- Stuck/ broken meters, malfunctioning (slow) meters, illegal/ unknown connections, poor meter reading practices, inaccurate data in Billing systems and wastage by consumers without proper bills can result in large amounts of lost revenues and increased Non-Revenue Water indicators
- Replacing meters based on age in an effort to improve revenues is not cost effective and will not address the majority of problems
WATER
HIGH LEAKAGE
Water Supply – High Leakage
- High Leakage due to a variety of reasons leading to extra production costs and compromising delivery capacity of network
- High Wastage, especially by non-paying customers implying both lost revenues and extra production costs and again compromising delivery capacity of network
ELECTRICITY
PUMPING COST
Water Supply – High Electricity Pumping Cost
- Electricity pumping costs can be as high as 40% of Operational Expenditure and together with staffing costs constitute the main operational cost of the Utility
- Making sure that the pump is working efficiently is a pre-requisite but even then costs are high
WATER
POOR QUALITY
Water – Poor Quality Monitoring
- Compliance with Current and Future Legislation
- Ground Water Management
- Source Water Protection
- Emergency Preparedness
- Monitoring of Traditional Contaminants
- Monitoring Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Drinking Water
ENERGY
BALANCING
ENERGY
BALANCING
Energy – Balancing Supply and Demand
- Significant shifts from conventional power generation to weather-controlled power generation create more variables in forecasting supply and demand models. Energy providers must balance supply and demand
- For a single operator in energy markets, the energy balance must be readjusted on a real time basis to account for green energy weather controlled production, also often curtailed as per Transmission System Operator demands and adjusted for optimal Energy markets sales