Full Description

In the early 1990s the increasing pressure to monitor and improve water quality withinthe water distribution system, as evidenced by the Total Coliform Rule and the increasingcost of energy consumed within the distribution system at East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), sparked the quest foran integrated water quality and energy management operation. The urgency of this needwas further amplified by the onset of electric deregulation in California and on the EastCoast in the mid 1990s.In 1993 EBMUD performed a study of water quality in its water distribution system.This study lead to the development of a number of operating techniques to maintain waterquality in the distribution system. With the advent of Time of Use (TOU)electric rates, water quality operations had the potential to increase energy costs. Starting in 1995, EBMUD participated in two projects partially sponsored by the American WaterWorks Association Research Foundation (AWWARF) aimed at eventually developing anintegrated Energy and Water Quality Management System (EWQMS). The first projectprovided an outline for an EWQMS and evaluated the cost benefit of developing anEWQMS through a forum of users or on an individual basis. The cost benefit indicated aforum approach is the most effective.In 1997, EBMUD participated in the second project which developed, through a forumprocess, a functional specification for the EWQMS Software. Thecomplexity of the envisioned EWQMS and the expected cost to develop a system thatcould work for multiple utilities essentially put further efforts through a forum process onhold. An AWWARF Tailored Collaboration Project subsequently developed a prototypefor a portion of the EWQMS. In a parallel effort, EBMUD utilizedknowledge gained from the development of the functional specification to embark on thedevelopment effort for a modified, but fully operational, EWQMS. Since no systemexisted capable of optimizing the operation of EBMUD's distribution system for energycost and water quality, EBMUD focused the EWQMS system on the optimization ofenergy costs while using EBMUD's water quality operating rules to address waterquality. This significantly reduced the complexity of the optimization process. In orderto limit the financial risk associated with state of the art software development, EBMUDdeveloped a shared savings compensation process for the development effort. EBMUDissued its first Request for Proposals (RFP) in April 1999. The large costs ofdevelopment ultimately lead to the first vendor's bankruptcy, and EBMUD was forced toreissue the RFP. The second vendor, Derceto Inc., successfully completed developmentand installation of the EWQMS in September of 2004. Includes 5 references, table, figures.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/17/2005 Number of Pages: 13File Size: 1 file , 1.2 MB