Water systems design impact on utilities efficient management – Long term planning in a multi-utility Group

Abstract

Water utilities in different countries are facing challenges in how to manage effectively their global operations. Being a capital intensive activity, the way how to design the infrastructures is an important topic and an efficient cost-effectively management is crucial in order to provide a safe and reliable service to final users. Aligned with these challenges decision-makers have to deal with an infrastructure with indefinite lives where a proper decision regarding the implementation of a solution today will always have a long term effect. In this process it’s important to understand the impact that standards and/or design codes can have on systems’ performance. These concerns are even more important in a Group that manages utilities in different countries with different contexts and regulatory frameworks where standards, such as, design codes can be mandatory or best practices to be followed. This paper aims to describe how design codes can influence performance and operational management practices. The systems’ performance comparison will be presented having as a case study a water distribution system designed under three different countries’ codes and consumption patterns. The results are acknowledged in order to understand their impact under the infrastructure asset management (IAM) policies