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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="https://communities.bentley.com/cfs-file/__key/system/syndication/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>Rajan_ray's Blog</title><link>https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog</link><description /><dc:language>en-US</dc:language><generator>Telligent Community 12</generator><item><title>Maximize your Water/Wastewater Hydraulic Model</title><link>https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/posts/maximize-your-water-wastewater-hydraulic-model</link><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 20:33:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">6dad98f5-dbc9-4c4d-a9ba-e9da8dc6aa8e:bf3862f3-77d4-4564-805a-548a3383ac35</guid><dc:creator>Rajan Ray</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/rsscomments?WeblogPostID=56299</wfw:commentRss><comments>https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/posts/maximize-your-water-wastewater-hydraulic-model#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;
Utilities invest a significant amount on developing, calibrating, and maintaining a model; however, many utilities either are not using their model or are using only a fraction of its capabilities.  Locate the feature list of your hydraulic modeling software vendor, and tick off the features that you use.  What percentage of the software tool are you making use of?  5%? 10%?  Are you integrating with your SCADA system?  Helping to build a hydrant flushing schedule?  Optimizing your system based on genetic algorithms?  Using the model to support your capital planning?  Granted,  some features may be useful to only a small fraction of utilities, but many hydraulic models are underutilized.
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The most common applications for hydraulic models have been for master planning, evaluating proposed facilities, and pipe design scenarios, but there is so much more.  Think about the main challenges and opportunities you see in your system.  Pipe breaks?  Tanks not turning over?  Consistent taste and odor complaints?  Fireflow requests are backlogged?  Old cast iron piping needs to be replaced?  Energy costs are high and are increasing?  Can a hydraulic model assist in the above challenges?  Absolutely...and much, much more.
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So what are the emerging trends in water/wastewater modeling?  We are seeing several progressive utilities integrate their models with their SCADA system for real-time modeling, developing diurnal curves per zone, pump energy optimization, and operational modeling. We are seeing 2d modeling to model the surface flooding of wastewater systems in urban areas and long-term flow simulations.  There is also more complete integration with asset management and GIS to assist with CIP, criticality, and capacity studies.  Each one of these is certainly worthy of a lot of exploration (and we look forward to a lot of passionate discussion of these within this forum!)  When you identify a real, &amp;lsquo;right-now' need, explore your model's existing functionality to help find cost-effective solutions, and put in the time to maintain your model, you're realizing the full value of your important investment.
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="https://communities.bentley.com/aggbug?PostID=56299&amp;AppID=17827&amp;AppType=Weblog&amp;ContentType=0" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description></item><item><title>Raise your hand if you have implemented an Asset Management system</title><link>https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/posts/raise-your-hand-if-you-have-implemented-an-asset-management-system</link><pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2009 22:49:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">6dad98f5-dbc9-4c4d-a9ba-e9da8dc6aa8e:20965451-384a-45a9-a159-8ebb9db69c09</guid><dc:creator>Rajan Ray</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/rsscomments?WeblogPostID=54512</wfw:commentRss><comments>https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/posts/raise-your-hand-if-you-have-implemented-an-asset-management-system#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;
Our group attended and presented at the New Jersey Water Environment Association conference the other day during the GIS and Asset Management track.  It was an informative session with presentations ranging from mobile applications, asset management, GIS-integrated hydraulic modeling, and more.  There were several consulting firms teamed with utilities showcasing their custom data collection applications that integrated with their GIS and asset management system.  In some cases, these utilities were able to cut the data collection time in half  - which is terrific on multiple levels.&amp;nbsp;  But what struck me was that there did not seem to be a best practice collecting this information (i.e., what data to collect, which field types to use, which programming application to use , how to sync the data back to the server, etc.) and it did not seem to be a standard &amp;lsquo;asset management' solution. 
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There was a very practical and helpful presentation on the free asset management tools that the EPA offers (http://www.epa.gov/OWM/assetmanage/index.htm), but when the question was asked on which utilities are actually using these guides and tools  there were not many mentioned.  During another presentation, there were only a handful of people raising their hands when asked the question &amp;lsquo;who currently has implemented an asset management system?' .  It reminded me of a similar question that was asked during these types of conference 10 or so years ago...'Raise your hand if you have implemented a GIS'.  Back then, it was the same response of 2-3 people in a group of 60 utility professionals.  When asked specifically what  they were using, each one had a different answer.  
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Asset Management seems to be the new GIS, a buzz word or technology that we know needs to be implemented but is still quite nebulous.  As witnessed during the session, there are very tangible ROI savings from collecting data efficiently, moving away from paper, having easy access to the data, and analyzing the data for future planning.  In terms of hydraulic modeling, the data collected for asset management is also extremely helpful in establishing a well-calibrated model and for other modeling applications such as criticality analysis, capital planning, uni-directional flushing, etc.  Utilities are investing a lot of money in asset management and there are many software vendors that claim to have asset management solutions. It is going to be very interesting to see what standards, best practices, and software applications percolate to the top, and how many more people raise their hands in the next 3-5 years when asked about their asset management solution.
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="https://communities.bentley.com/aggbug?PostID=54512&amp;AppID=17827&amp;AppType=Weblog&amp;ContentType=0" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/water">water</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/CUPPS">CUPPS</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/utilities">utilities</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/wastewater">wastewater</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/NJWEA">NJWEA</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/Asset%2bManagement">Asset Management</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/epa">epa</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/GIS">GIS</category><category domain="https://communities.bentley.com/other/old_site_member_blogs/peer_blogs/b/rajan_rays_blog/archive/tags/idmodeling">idmodeling</category></item></channel></rss>