UKWIR have commissioned WRc to undertake an assessment of the whole life benefits of pressure management in water distribution.
Whilst pressure management is known to have a measurable impact on the reduction in water loss it is currently difficult to quantify additional benefits associated with burst frequency, deferment of mains replacement, levels of service, and customer contacts. Therefore, the standard economic analyses used to justify investment decisions has historically been based on the value of water saved through reduced leakage, and has not assessed the full range of costs and benefits. By the quantification of additional financial benefits it is possible to understand the full impact of pressure management schemes which may provide greater justification for further pressure management.
The project builds on work undertaken in 2007 within the WRc Portfolio project: CP303 -The Real Benefits of Pressure Management. Under CP303 WRc collected and analysed data from a number of water companies and established and quantified relationships between pressure management and leakage, bursts, minimum night flow, natural rate of rise, customer complaints, and levels of service. The project also delivered a pressure management costing tool to enable companies to calculate whole life cost of pressure management schemes based on cost benefit principles.
The UKWIR project builds on this previous expertise through applying a larger data set to:
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Strengthen the relationships between parameters
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Assess the relationships within various pressure management applications
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Explore the most effective maintenance regimes appropriate to individual pressure management zones
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Modify our economic tool for use by the wider water industry.
WRc are currently in the process of completing data collection. The results of analysis will be available in early 2010.