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Philadelphia Water Department Selects CapPlan Water |
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Broomfield, Colorado USA, May 24, 2011 — Innovyze, a leading global innovator of wet infrastructure modeling and simulation software and technologies, today announced that the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD), PA, has selected Innovyze CapPlan Water as its drinking water infrastructure management and risk assessment solution. The purchase equips PWD with a full range of high-performance performance modeling and condition assessment capabilities to help strengthen and optimize its water infrastructure and keep it operating efficiently well into the future. PWD, which began water system service in 1801, supplies water to the City of Philadelphia (130 square mile service area), and portions of Montgomery, Delaware and Bucks Counties. The system serves over 1.7 million people through approximately 3,200 miles of mains, three water treatment plants and 15 pumping stations, and provides fire protection through more than 25,000 fire hydrants. “CapPlan Water gives us the advanced asset performance modeling and risk assessment tools we need to optimize rehabilitation and renewal planning for our water system,” said James M. Brady, P.E., Chief of Water Conveyance for PWD. “The software’s comprehensive capabilities will help us refine our capital improvement plan to provide maximum benefit for the lowest cost and continue to best serve our customers.” CapPlan Water changes the way water utilities plan the relative phasing of system improvements by allowing them to assess both the probability and consequence of failure for each asset. Assets that affect system operation will normally rate high on the consequence scale, while assets in poor condition will have a high probability of failure. In addition to refinements throughout, the latest release adds the ability to make consequence or likelihood of failure calculations based on GIS field, using virtually any mathematical function. This gives utilities the unique ability to directly apply any custom-developed methodology to their capital planning processes. Probability of failure is determined based on the pipe’s physical condition (structural integrity, age, material, roughness factor, leakage/break/defect history) and location (proximity to a seismic fault or construction zone) as well as its hydraulic performance characteristics (head loss, pressure, velocity). Consequence of failure draws on data such as water outages (schools, hospitals, critical care facilities); low- and no-water conditions; reduced fire protection capabilities; flooding, including structural damage and impacts of chlorinated water in natural waterways; degradation of water quality; and other factors. CapPlan Water calculates the risk of each asset linearly (consequence score multiplied by probability score), using either a bi-directional distribution matrix or a more complex multi-criterion classification. This choice of calculation methods gives water utilities unprecedented flexibility in defining risk based on virtually any combination of supporting data. The greatest attention can then be given to water mains at highest risk. With this evaluation in hand, utilities can create fully prioritized short- and long-term water main rehabilitation, replacement, maintenance and management plans and develop sound, cost-effective capital programs to support them. The program’s intuitive interface; easy-to-use functionality; and rich analytical, graphing and reporting capabilities save utilities considerable resources. With minimal effort, users can quickly pinpoint assets at the greatest risk of hydraulic and water quality deficiencies or structural failure, identify the best possible improvement alternatives for optimal system performance, prioritize improvements based on available budget, and realize significant cost savings. |
